JUDGMENT

1. The appellant has been found guilty for offences under Sections 304-B, 306, 498-A and 201 of the Indian Penal Code by both the courts below on the allegation that he had maltreated his wife, the deceased, on account of her bringing insufficient dowry which caused her death by her committing suicide which he had abetted, and that he inflicted cruelty on her and finally destroyed evidence of the offence by putting her body to flames without informing her parental family. Legal presumptions have been raised from the fact that the appellant had married the deceased within 7 years of her death, and that whenever she visited her parental house, she was found complaining about the ill-treatment meted out to her by the appellant. The last complaint on that account was revealed from her visit to her parental family about a month prior to the date of her death. PW 4, the brother and PW 5, the mother have deposed to that effect setting in motion the presumption raisable under Section 304-B IPC. Under that provision, where the death of a woman occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within 7 years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected