MUNNI DEVI Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD . Smt. Dhanpati d/o Darya Singh r/o Village LItani was married to Mohinder Singh s/o Kartar Singh in the year 1984. Her another sister named Nirmla was also married to her husband's brother Ajmer the same day. Nirmla Devi died a year earlier to the death of Dhanpati. It is Dhanpati's death which is in question in case FIR No. 62 dated 3.3.1996 under Section 498-A/306 of the Indian Penal Code. According to Ram Chander who is the brother of said Dhanpati and author of this first information report, Nirmla was harassed by her husband Ajmer, father-in-law Kartar Singh, brother-in-laws Sanjiv Kumar and Mohinder Singh and mother-in-law Smt. Munni Devi. She committed suicide because she could not bear her harassment at their hands. Matter was not raked up because of compromise brought about through the intervention of the Panchayat.

(2.) A few days after the death of Nirmla Devi, Mohinder Singh, Ajmer and Munni Devi etc. started harassing Dhanpati also. They gave her beatings. As a sequel to those beatings Dhanpati went to the house of her parents. With the intervention of the respectables of villages Litani and Igrah, she was sent to the matrimonial home. Panchayat of village Igrah also assured her parents that there would be no repetition of maltreatment of Dhanpati at the hands of her in-laws. It was on this assurance that she was sent to the matrimonial home. Few days thereafter, a buffalo was given to them on their demand.

(3.) ON 3.3.1996, Ram Chander s/o Darya Singh came to know about his sister Dhanpati having consumed some poisonous substance compelled by the circumstances created by her in-laws. She died on 3.3.1996.