NIRMAL KUMAR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a criminal appeal filed by Nirmal Kumar and his mother Surinder Kaur, and has been directed against the judgment and order dated 13.8.1996, passed by the Court of Sessions Judge, Hoshiarpur, who convicted the appellants u/s 304-B IPC, and sentenced them to undergo R.I. for a period of 10 years each.

(2.) THE brief facts of the case can be described in the following manner :- Usha Rani, deceased, was married to Nirmal Kumar, appellant, by her father Raj Kumar, complainant, PW-6, and as per the story of the prosecution at the time of the marriage, Raj Kumar gave sufficient dowry according to his financial capacity and status. The prosecution further alleges that Usha Rani was allegedly maltreated and harassed by the appellants on account of bringing insufficient dowry and that the appellants demanded a Fridge from her parents. On 16.4.1995, the deceased had told her father Raj Kumar about the demand upon which he along with the deceased and Manohar Lal, PW-7, (maternal uncle of Usha Rani) went to the house of the accused and requested them not to harass the deceased and not to make the demand of the Fridge. Usha Rani again complained to her father that her in-laws were still demanding Fridge and that she is being harassed. The deceased was sent back with an assurance that the demand of the Fridge would be met shortly and positively before the Rakhri festival of the year 1995. It may be mentioned that the festival of Rekhri of that year was to fall on 10.8.1995. The present occurrence took place on 9.8.1995. According to Raj Kumar, he received an information that his daughter was lying admitted in Civil Hospital, Hoshiarpur, with burn injuries and on hearing this news, he went to Hoshiarpur on 9.8.1995 itself and saw that his daughter was having 100% burns and she was lying admitted in the hospital. Later on, Usha succumbed to the burn injuries and the father lodged the report with the police on 10.8.1995 with the above allegations that his daughter was done to death on account of dowry demand.

(3.) IN order to prove the charges, the prosecution examined Bakshish Singh, PW-1, who prepared the site plan, Ex. PA, with correct marginal notes. Constable Ranjit Singh, PW-2, gave his statement by way of an affidavit like that of Constable Sardari Lal, PW-3. Dr. Avinash Sood, PW-4, conducted the post-mortem on the dead body of Usha and found almost 100% burns on the body, sparing soles of feet slightly. This doctor observed that the skin was burn and peeled off at many places. The colour of the body became black. In the opinion of the doctor, the cause of death was excessive burns leading to the dehydration and toxemia, which was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature and all the injuries were ante-mortem. The probable time that elapsed between the injuries and death was within six hours and between death and post-mortem was within 15 hours. He issued, Ex. PD, the correct carbon copy of the post-mortem examination of Usha. Ex. PD/1 was the pictorial diagram showing the seat of burns. The post-mortem was conducted on the request, Ex. PE, made by the police, which prepared the inquest report, Ex. PF, on the dead body. Unfortunately, Usha could not give any statement as she remained unfit to make any statement till her death. Constable Raj Kumar, PW-5, took the photographs, Ex. P-1 to P-4, of the place of occurrence. Raj Kumar, father, Manohar Lal, maternal uncle and Darshan Lal, brother, who appeared as PWs 6 to 8, are the material witnesses of this case whose statements I shall deal in the later portion of this judgment. ASI Naresh Kumar, PW-7, conducted part investigation of this case when he received intimation, Ex. PH, about the admission of Usha with burn injuries in the Civil Hospital. He submitted the application, Ex. PG, to the doctor to the effect whether Usha was fit to make the statement and vide endorsement, Ex. PG/1, the doctor declared Usha to be unfit to make the statement. S.I. Ravinderpal Singh, PW-10, was the other I.O. who prepared the inquest report of the dead body of the deceased and he visited the place of occurrence and took into possession stove with kerosene oil, fry pan, sieve, iron box, burnt chunni, bangles, match box, etc.