PRITPAL SINNGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Pritpal Singh, his wife Gurcharan Kaur, his son Arvinder Singh and daughter Gurpreet Kaur were charged and tried by the Additional Sessions Judge, Jalandhar under Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code for the death of Varinder Kaur.

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts of the prosecution case are that Varinder Kaur daughter of Jagjit Singh, resident of village Jalalabad was married to Arvinder Singh in November, 1990. After the marriage; the couple lived in Guru Ravi Dass Nagar, Jalandhar with the parents and sister of Arvinder Singh appellant. The couple used to sleep in the upper portion of the house and on 19.9.1991, at about 8.00 a.m., Arvinder Singh had left for the College where he was teaching. At about 9.00 a.m., Varinder Kaur had gone upstairs but when she did not come down till 1.00 p.m. Pritpal Singh thought that she had gone to sleep and Gurcharan Kaur went upstairs to ask her to join them for lunch. The mother-in-law found the door of the room bolted from inside and when on knocking she got no response, Gurcharan Kaur came down and informed Pritpal Singh. Pritpal Singh also went upstairs. He tried to open the door and on peeping in through the window, he found the dead body of Varinder Kaur hanging with the ceiling fan. Pritpal Singh approached Charanjit Singh, who was working as an Extension Officer in the All India Radio and got sent a telegram to the parents of the deceased. He also approached the police where he got his statement recorded. On reaching the house of Pritpal Singh, the police sent for a Photographer and in the presence of Charanjit Singh, Arvinder Singh etc., Satish Kumar, Photographer, took the photographs and after bolt of the door was broke open, it was found that Varinder Kaur had tied a Dupatta around her neck and committed suicide. The statements of Pritpal Singh, Charanjit Singh, Arvinder Singh, Gurcharan Kaur, Gurpreet Kaur, Piara Singh and Manmohan Singh were recorded and post-mortem got done on the dead body of Varinder Kaur.

(3.) On 20.9.1991, Jagjit Singh, father of the deceased, had moved an application before the Station House Officer, Police Station, Division No. VI, Jalandhar, alleging that even though at the time of wedding of Varinder Kaur he had given dowry according to his capacity yet Gurcharan Kaur, Pritpal Singh and Gurpreet Kaur sister-in-law of the deceased were not satisfied and had developed bad relations with the deceased. After sometime Arvinder Singh had also developed a similar attitude and started raising certain demands in the shape of small articles and money. He also asserted that he had tried to meet the demands but when about a month ago prior to her death, Varinder Kaur had visited her parents, she had told them that her in-laws were not satisfied with the dowry and were demanding a Maruti car for rehabilitation. Jagjit Singh had taken along with him some respectable and requested the in-laws not to harass her as also about their inability to give a Maruti car. They had returned to Dharamkot and on 20.9.1991, an employee had told them that Varinder Kaur had died. The case was investigated into and on completion thereof a challan was put in Court under Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code.