PANKAJ SAH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants in both the appeals were tried together in Sessions Trial No. 119 of 2011 by learned Adhoc Additional Sessions Judge IV, Banka and convicted by a common judgment and as such both the appeals were taken up together for hearing and are being disposed of by us by this common judgment.

(2.) The appellants have preferred the appeal under Section 374 (2) of the Code Of Criminal Procedure, 1973 [ hereinafter referred to as the "Cr.P.C."] against the judgment dated 12.03.2013 passed by Shri N.K. Lall, learned Adhoc Additional Sessions Judge -IV, Banka [hereinafter referred to as the "trial court"] in Sessions Trial No. 119 of 2011 whereby by judgment dated- 12.03.2013 all the appellants were convicted under Section 304 -B, 498-A and 201 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ( hereinafter referred to as the "I.P.C.") and vide order dated -15.03.2013 under Section 304B of the I.P.C. the sole appellant- Pankaj Sah @ Pankaj Kumar Gupta in Cr. Appeal (D.B.) No. 601 of 2013 has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and under Section 498A of the I.P.C. he has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5000/- and further under Section 201 of the I.P.C. he has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years and to pay a fine of Rs. 3000/- and in case of default in payment of fines he has further been directed to undergo simple imprisonment for three months and two months respectively. Similarly, Cr. Appeal (D.B.) No. 294 of 2013 was filed by two appellants namely: Ram Charitra Sah and Rekha Devi however, appellant no. 1 - Ram Charitra Sah died during pendency of appeal and an interlocutory application vide I.A. No. 4 of 2019 was filed by learned counsel for the appellants informing us that appellant no. 1 has left for heavenly abode and accordingly by order dated 23.04.2019 in Cr. Appeal (D.B. ) No. 294 of 2013 in respect of appellant no.1 namely Ram Charitra Sah the appeal stood abated and was disposed of. The remaining appellant in Cr. Appeal (D.B.) No. 294 of 2013 namely Rekha Devi was convicted and by order dated 15.03.2013 was sentenced under Section 304B of the I.P.C. to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and further under Section 498A of the I.P.C. she was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years with a fine of Rs. 5000/- and under Section 201 of the I.P.C. she has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years with a fine of Rs. 3000/- and in case of default in payment of fines she has been directed to undergo further simple imprisonment for three months and two months respectively. All the sentences were directed to run concurrently by the learned trial court.

(3.) Short fact of the case is that on 17.11.2010 in the night at 9.35 P.M. fardbyan of Awadh Bihari Sah (P.W. 5), S/o Jagadish Prasad Sah resident of village- Gadi Devali, P.S. - Jama, District -Dumka ( Jharkhand) was recorded by S.I. Arun Kumar Rai ( P.W. 6), S.H.O., Banka P.S. at Banka Bazar in the house of Pankaj Kumar (appellant), S/o Ram Charitra Sah. It was disclosed that his daughter - Mamta, aged about 21 years was married to Pankaj Sah @ Pankaj Gupta ( appellant ), S/o Ram Charitra Sah of Banka Bazar about three years back. At the time of marriage to the best of the capacity of the informant gifts were given to the son-in-law of the informant but the informant's son -in-law was a greedy person and used to demand dowry regularly. It has further been stated that apart from the son-in-law of the informant, his father -Ram Charitra Sah and wife of Ram Charitra Sah were also used to demand dowry. On non fulfillment of demand of dowry they used to torture the daughter of the informant namely Mamta Devi and upon being fed up with the torture meted to Mamta Devi by her in-laws she had come to the informant's house at Gadi Devali. Before Diwali the son-in-law of informant took his daughter after bidai to her matrimonial home and torture by mother- in- law, father- in- law and son -in- law of the informant again started. At about 6.00 O' Clock in the evening on the fateful day the mother -in- law of Mamta informed the informant on phone that Mamta has died due to gas cylinder burst and this information was also given by the son- in- law and his father to the informant. The informant has further stated that when he reached the house of his son -in- law at Banka he found his daughter -Mamta was lying near the stairs. Despite burn injury there was sign of wound apparent on the body of his daughter. On the scalp there was injury and in the mouth clothes were pushed. The informant got impression that Mamta was brutally assaulted first and thereafter clothes were pushed in her mouth and she was done to death and in order to conceal the evidence her entire body was put to flame. The informant asserted that in the death of her daughter, his sonin- law (Pankaj Gupta) , his father -Ram Charitra Sah and mother of Pankaj were involved and in order to mislead the informant wrong information was passed upon him. The informant after recording of the fardbyan read the same and the same was also read over to him and after finding it correct in presence of his brother -Mohan Prasad Gupta (P.W. 4) he put his signature. As a witness to the fardbyan Mohan Prasad Gupta (P.W. 4) also put his signature.