RAM DITTA Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above appeals have arisen from the judgment of conviction and sentence passed by the learned trial Court in Sessions trial No. 5 of 1999, decided on 6.9.2001, whereby each the appellants were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/ - each, in default of payment of fine, simple imprisonment for a period of one year each under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code and each of the appellants were also sentenced under Section 498 -A of the Indian Penal Code to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/ - and in default of payment of fine simple imprisonment for a period of six months. Both the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

(2.) RAJ Kumar is the son of appellants Ram Ditta and Kamla Devi. He was married to deceased Pawna Devi on 20.10.1996. Pawna Devi committed suicide by consuming poison on 9.10.1997, i.e. within seven years from their marriage. Appellant Meena Devi is the wife of Hem Raj an elder brother of Raj Kumar. After the marriage, the deceased Pawna Devi, resided in her matrimonial house in village Tesli, Tehsil Ghumarwin, District Bilaspur. Her husband Raj Kumar was running a shop at Ner Chowk in district Mandi. It is alleged that after four months of her marriage with Raj Kumar, all appellants started humiliating and harassing the deceased on the ground that her parents had provided the dowry articles of inferior quality. The deceased complained to her parents but her parents sympathized that since her husband and his elder brother Hem Ram were not party to it, everything would improve with the passing of time. It is also the case of the prosecution that Raj Kumar, her husband used to tell her that he would persuade the appellants to behave properly.

(3.) ON 9.10.1997, Pawna Devi committed suicide by consuming the poison. She was taken to the Government Hospital Kuthera. The parents of the deceased were informed. Shri Nikka Ram, her father went to the hospital. He saw his daughter Pawna Devi in a critical condition. She was unable to speak and she at that time could hardly utter Chugli - and Jehar -, thereafter she died on the same day.