MADURI DEVI @ MUNDRI DEVI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Appellants have been convicted under Section 306/34 IPC and sentenced to RI for ten years and fine of Rs. 5,000/ - in default of which further RI for two and half years. Out of fine amount Rs. 2,500/ - was to be paid to the informant as compensation for litigation by the 3rd Additional and District Judge, Buxar in S.Tr. No. 232 of 1996 by judgment and order dated 22.02.2002.

(2.) THE case of the Informant, P.W. 5 Bhola Rana is that his sister was married to the Appellant No. 2 in the year 1986 but the in -laws used to demand a bicycle and television and on account of non -fulfilment of such demand his sister was variously assaulted. On 24.09.1988 he was informed by his sister that her mother -in -law had assaulted her and finally on 01.11.1998 he learnt that his sister had committed suicide on account of such atrocities.

(3.) ON going through the evidence of these two witnesses, I find that all that the witnesses have stated is that their sister was married two years earlier to the Appellant No. 2 and when they received information from their brother -in - law, Girdhari Paswan at Calcutta that their sister had committed suicide they came to the village and this fact was confirmed. They deposed that the mother -in -law used to torture their sister and when she made complaint to her husband, the Appellant No. 2 passed on the responsibility to the mother. Apart from this evidence, I do not find any material to substantiate that the Appellants had in any manner instigated the deceased to commit suicide which was an essential ingredient to prove the charge u/s 306 IPC.