SWARAN LAL Vs. STATE OF H P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellants Swaran Lal, Ramesh Lal and Tripta Devi have preferred this appeal against the judgment dated 22.3.2005 of learned Additional Sessions Judge (Presiding Officer, Fast Track Court), Kangra at Dharamshala, whereby they have been convicted of offences under Sections 306 and 498-A of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced as follows:- <FRM>JUDGEMENT_664_CRIMES1_2006Html1.htm</FRM>

(2.) First the prosecution version may be narrated. Deceased Sudesh Rani had been married to appellant Swaran Lal in the year 1991. After the marriage she started living at her in-laws' place. When even two-three years after the marriage the deceased did not conceive, appellant Swaran Lal, her husband, started illtreating her. Often he would give beatings to her and also harass her. Fed up with the ill-treatment and harassment at the hands of her husband, the deceased would often go to her parents' place. Four-five months before her death (she died on 31st January, 1999), also she had gone to her father's place and told her father that she was unable to bear the ill-treatment and torture any longer and so she had left her in-laws' place and come to stay at his place.She also complained to her father Pal Chand that her husband, i.e. appellant Swaran Lal, taunted her that her parents had not given him a golden chain. She further fold her father that her husband's brother and the wife of that brother, namely appellants Ramesh Lal and Tripta Devi, respectively, also taunted her that she had not brought sufficient dowry and also quarrelled with her over petty things. When the deceased had been at his place for two months on her last visit to her parental place, her father accompanied by Sarpanch Balkar Chand and some other respectable persons went to appellant Swaran Lal to settle the matter amicably. Swaran Lal apologised and next day he visited his in-laws' place and took the deceased back to the matrimonial home. On 1st February, 1999 around 10.00, in the morning one Om Parkash, a cousin of appellant Swaran Lal went to the place of the father of the deceased and informed him that his daughter had died on the previous night. The father of the deceased then went to deceased's in-laws place and saw the dead-body and lodged the report with the police in the form, of statement, under Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, narrating therein the aforesaid facts.

(3.) Police conducted inquest. No external injury was noticed, as per inquest report. Dead-body was sent to the hospital for post-mortem examination. The doctor who conducted the postmortem examination noticed two lacerated wounds, one on the right thigh (back side) and the second on the back side of the chest. The size of the wounds was 3x1x1 cm. Viscera was preserved. The opinion as to the cause of the death was reserved till the receipt of the report of the Chemical Examiner regarding viscera. Viscera was sent to the Chemical Examiner, who reported the presence of aluminum phosphate in it. On the basis of this report, the doctor gave the opinion that the deceased died of poisoning by aluminum phosphate. 4