RAKESH KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present appeal has been directed by the appellants against their conviction and sentence passed in Sessions Trial No.20-K/VII of 2008 decided on 23rd May, 2009, whereby each of the appellants i.e. the husband and mother in law of the deceased were sentenced to simple imprisonment for a period of seven years and to pay a fine of Rs. 15,000/- under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code and also for a period of three years and fine Whether reporters of the Local papers are allowed to see the judgment? of Rs. 10,000/- under Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code with default clauses by the learned Sessions Judge. However, both the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

(2.) IN nutshell, the prosecution case can be stated thus. <DJG>(i) PW3 Jugal Kishore is father of deceased Monika Devi. Deceased was married to appellant No.1 Rakesh Kumar, resident of village Kachhiari, Tehsil and District Kangra on 29th September, 2006. After marriage, the deceased was kept well for sometime, but when she gave birth to a female child on 14.11.2007 through a cesarean operation, the attitude of the appellant Rakesh and his family members became altogether different and they subjected her with cruelty. PW3 Jugal Kishore alleged that once she made a complaint to him using her mobile phone that her in-laws were not treating her well and they made her life miserable. Thereafter the said phone was snatched by her sister-in- law Shama Devi.</DJG>

(3.) TO prove its case, prosecution examined its witnesses and the appellants and their co-accused were also examined under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The circumstances, which were found attendant upon were put to them, to which they denied. However, all of them pleaded their innocence and submitted that a conspiracy was hatched against them by the father of the deceased and the police to implicate them in a false case, whereas it was her father (PW3) who used to harass and beat her. There have been quarrels between the father and the daughter and even on the day of Deepawali, her father gave beatings to her.