STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH Vs. PARDEEP KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) State of Himachal Pradesh has assailed judgment dtd. 17/11/2008, passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Una in Criminal Appeal No. 10/2007, whereby the judgment dtd. 20/7/2007, passed by learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Court No. 2, Amb, District Una, H.P. in Criminal Case No. 138-1-2002/65-II-2003 convicting the respondent, has been set aside.

(2.) Respondent alongwith two others namely Ramesh Chand and Sudershana Devi were tried for offences under Sec. 498-A and 325 read with Sec. 34 of IPC before learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Court No. 2, Amb, District Una, H.P.in Criminal Case No. 138-1-2002/65-II-2003,respondent was convicted for offences under Ss. 498-A and 325 of IPC, however, the other two accused persons were acquitted.

(3.) The case was registered against the respondent and other co-accused, on the basis of complaint made by Smt. Mamta Sharma, wife of respondent alleging inter alia that she had been harassed and maltreated for demand of dowry by the accused persons after her marriage. The allegations were levelled against respondent and his parents. As per complainant, she had procured money from her parents many times on the asking of the accused persons. Respondent used to give her beatings. He had a Car Repair Work Shop at Delhi. When she accompanied her husband to Delhi, there also, she was being ill-treated. After her return from Delhi, complainant had narrated the entire incident to her parents. At the instance of parents of complainant and with the intervention of certain other persons husband and father-in-law of complainant agreed to take the complainant with them. She stayed in her matrimonial home for about five months, but throughout this period, she was ill-treated. In June, the complainant again accompanied her husband to Delhi, but there also, respondent kept on ill treating her by giving beatings. He was always coercing the complainant to bring money from her parents. On the night of 28/7/2002, respondent after bolting the door from inside stuffed the mouth of complainant with a cloth and gave her beatings with fists. Complainant had received an injury in her ear. She made a complaint to her uncle Sh. Tara Chand. Finally, she came back to her parents and reported the matter to police.