MANOJ CHAUDHARY Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants had been saddled at trial allegedly for causing dowry death of Reena Devi and for which they suffered conviction under Sections 304B and 201 of the Indian Penal Code. Though they had been charged also under Section 328 of the Indian Penal Code, they had been acquitted on that count. Among appellants, while Sonamati Devi and Jagwanti Devi, for their conviction under Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code, were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a term of seven years, Jagdish Chaudhary and Manoj Chaudhary, for their conviction on that count, were sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for a term of ten years. For their conviction under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code, the appellants, however, were not sentenced to any term of imprisonment.

(2.) The basic features of the prosecution case, shorn of details, are as follows : Reena Devi was married to Jagdish Chaudhary sometimes in the year 1992. The second marriage was performed sometimes in the year 1993. When she came to her parents' house after about one year of the marriage, she informed family members about in-laws insisting for provision of a she-buffalo, failure of which may cause her killing. When Reena Devi again went to her matrimonial house, the brother made all entreaties before the in-laws to be affectionate to his sister, as he was not possessed or means to respond to their wishes, and eventually on 15th January, 1997 when Ramji Chaudhary visited village Newari to know welfare of his sister, Reena Devi was not found there, and when inquiries were made from neighbours, he was informed that having killed Reena, her dead body had been disposed of by the in-laws. The brother of the deceased had registered a police case pursuant to which investigation followed, in course of which the police took necessary steps for collection of evidences, apprehension of the accused persons and eventually on conclusion of investigation laid charge-sheet before the Court

(3.) The defence of the appellants both before the Court below and this Court had been that of innocence and also that Reena Devi had died of abdominal pain in her matrimonial house. The assertion made by the prosecution about Reena Devi having been wedded to Jagdish Chaudhary in the year 1992, was also resisted by the appellants as Reena Devi, in their terms, had been married to Jagdish Chaudhary in the year 1990.