SANJAY UPADHYAY Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellants herein have preferred this Criminal Appeal against the judgment and order dated 22.7.98 passed by Shri S.P. Thakur, 2 nd Assistant Sessions Judge, Dhanbad in Sessions Trial No. 247/96 whereby and whereunder the appellants were convicted under Section 304B/34 I.P.C. The appellant Nos. 1 and 2 i.e. Sanjay Upadhyay and Bishnu Nand Upadhyay were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years whereas appellant No. 3 Gayatri Devi was sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for 7 years.

(2.) THE prosecution story is in narrow compass the informants cousin (sister) Rakhi (since deceased) was married to the appellant No. 1 Sanjay Kumar Upadhyay on 8.7.95. On 23.1.96 Sanjay Upadhyay when came to the informants house for execution of "Rukhsodi" to take away his wife Rakhi, he demanded a sum of Rs. 50,000/ - to start a business of his own and a motorcycle to which the informant and the members of his family expressed their inability to fulfill his demand on account of their poverty. It is alleged that upon such expression the appellant Sanjay Kumar Upadhyay extended threat to them that they would not see the face of Rakhi again in future. However, Rukhsodi was executed on 25.1.96 and Rakhi went to her matrimonial home. The members of the family of the informant were very much perturbed for the gesture and threat of the appellant Sanjay Kumar Upadhyay for the safety of the life of Rakhi and for such reason the informant visited her matrimonial home regularly but the appellants did not allow him ever to meet his sister. On 3.2.96 the informant learnt while he was in the cricket ground at Maheshpur from someone that his sister had been burnt in her Sasural and that she was admitted in Bokaro General Hospital. On such information the informant with other witnesses rushed to Bokaro General Hospital where he came across Rakhi who disclosed that her husband Sanjay Upadhyay along with her father -in -law and mother -in -law, Nanad and other in -laws doused on her body, set her ablaze and confined her in the bathroom (latrine). Rakhi succumbed her burn injuries on 4.2.96 in the said Hospital. The informant Rajiv Ranjan Trivedi presented a written report (ext. 1) giving rise to Katras P.S. Case No. 43/1996 registered on 6.2.96 (ext. 3).

(3.) MR . Bajaj, learned Counsel submitted that the conviction of the appellants and conviction thereto are misdirected based upon without proper appreciation of the materials on the record. The learned Trial Court failed to take into consideration that the victim Rakhi soon after the occurrence was immediately removed to Choudhary Nursing Home at Katras and for her better and specialized treatment at Bokaro General Hospital, Bokaro where she succumbed her burn injuries.