GOBARDHAN MANDAL Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by the sole appellant has been directed against the judgment and order of conviction and sentence passed by Sri Baleshwar Prasad Singh, First additional Sessions Judge, Giridih, in Sessions Trial No. 302/88/ 30/88 whereby the appellant has been convicted under Sections 304 - Band 201 of Indian Penal Code and has been sentenced to life for former and rigorous imprisonment for three years for the latter offence. However, both the sentences are directed to run concurrently.

(2.) The appellant and his parents Laddu Mandal and Tusia Devi were prosecuted on the basis of First Information Report lodged by one Nemchand Mandal of village Sirsia in the district of Giridih on 19-11-1986 alleging that his sister Jageshwari Devi was married to the present appellant some four years back and was living a happy conjugal life. When he went to take her to the parental home on the occasion of Karma Puja that year, the appellant and his parents made a demand for Rs. 5,000/- cash a cow and a bicycle. The informant expressed his inability due to property. However, his sister Jageshwari Devi was allowed to go to her parental home. He further alleged in the FIR that when the appellant went to Sirsia on the occasion of Durga Puja for taking back his wife, he again repeated the demand. A sum of Rs. 700/- was borrowed from a co-villager Sudhir Prasad a bicycle was purchased and given to the appellant. Consequently, he went back with Jageshwari Devi to the matrimonial home again pressing for the fulfilment of the demand for cash and cow. After about fifteen days the first informant again went to the house of the appellant situated at village Barai within (sic) P.S. in the same district after managing a sum of Rs. 2,000/- (rupees two thousand) but he did not meet any adult member of the family including his sister Jageshwari Devi. He waited for some time and came back without making payment of the money. However, on 31-10-1987 he happened to come across the father of the appellant by the side of river Irga and at that time the father of the appellant enquired from him about Jageshwari Devi stating that she had fled away from the matrimonial home. A search was made, but she could not be traced out. It so happened that in the morning on 3-11-1987 the dead body of the deceased Jageshwari Devi was found floating inside a well situated close to the house of the appellant and U.D. case was registered on the basis of the information lodged by the father of the appellant. One J. Tirkey, S.I. of Birni investigated the a UD case respecting the death of the deceased and went to village Sirsia on 19-11-1987 and recorded the fardbeyan of Nemchand Mandal and on the basis thereof a case under Sections 304-B and 201 of Indian Penal Code was registered against the appellant and his parents alleging that they killed the deceased for dowry and consigned the dead body inside a well to cause disappearance of evidence.

(3.) All the three accused-persons were put on trial for commission of the offences under Sections 304-B and 201 of Indian Penal Code. However, they denied the charge and pleaded that the death of the deceased had occurred due to accidental fall in the well which went un-noticed until her dead body was found floating in the well. There was absolutely no demand for any dowry. The relationship between the deceased and her husband and in-laws was quite cordial. As a matter of fact, the husband had purchased a piece of land jointly in the name of the deceased and his younger brother.