RAJENDRA PRASAD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THOUGH Asha Lata Kumari alias Guddi wedded to one Arun Kumar, the appellant, had been blessed with a child, her happiness was quite short lived, as it was alleged that shortly a year had passed after her marriage, that the in -laws began to torture Guddi for failure of her parents to make provision of sufficient dowry to them. She at times was driven out of the matrimonial house and had gone to her parents. She had Complained to them about her sufferings and torture. Information of tragic end of Guddi allegedly by strangulation was communicated to the parents by one Madhusudan Prasad Singh (P.W. 2), pursuant to which mother of the deceased having got information confirmed about sad demise of her daughter, took recourse to public authority and set the criminal law in motion by filing a written complaint before the Officer Incharge of Hilsa Police Station. As usual, investigation commenced during which the Police officer entrusted with onerous task of investigation recorded statement of witnesses. visited place of occurrence and on conclusion of investigation, laid charge sheet before the Court. At trial that followed, the State examined seven witnesses who are father of the deceased, Police Officer, Judicial Officer and also host of other witnesses who somehow or the other expressed their familiarity with the incident. Defence too examined four witnesses ostensibly to counter accusations attributed to the appellants about their complicity and killing of the deceased. State had also sought to bring on record a letter allegedly written by Rajendra Prasad to the father of the deceased.

(2.) DEFENCE of the appellants was that Guddi died natural death in her in -laws ' house as she died due to diarrhoea and it was in course of treatment that she breathed her last for which we have noticed that defence had also chosen to examine some witnesses. Trial court, however, on negativing plea of innocence of the appellants recorded finding of guilt and convicted the appellants under sections 304, 498A and 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and though the appellants were sentenced to suffer life imprisonment for their conviction under section 304B IPC, no separate sentence was awarded to them for their conviction either under section 498A or 201 IPC.

(3.) THE other witness examined by the State about suffering of the deceased and also about some sort of information having been rendered to the mother of the deceased about killing of Guddi, was Madhusudan Prasad (P.W.2). This witness, as he states, had been to village Hasanpur where his sister was married, on 27.9.1997, when on hearing alarm emanating from the house of Rajendra Prasad, he visited his house. He found Asha Lata alias Guddi lying dead with tongue protruded, and black scar on the neck. The appellants toowere standing there with suspicious postures who took the dead body, the same night for cremation. This witness too states about torture allegedly meted out to Guddi by the in -laws for failure of her parents to make provision of sufficient dowry to them, Though he visited village Hasanpur many a times, he had his meeting with Asha Lata only once when she did not make any complaint to him about her suffering or torture meted out to her in -laws. But It could gauge that Asha was not happy in her matrimonial house. We may state that happiness or sorrow of a person is a state of mind which may be for various reasons, and if Asha looked unhappy, that did not necessarily mean that it was for the torture meted out to her by the in -laws and that too for failure of her parents to make provision of sufficient dowry to them.