JUDGMENT

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J. —

1. Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court allowing the appeal filed by the respondent-State of Karnataka. Said Criminal appeal was filed under Section 378(1) and (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short the ‘Code’). The learned 3rd Additional Sessions Judge, Dharwad, directed acquittal of the present appellants who faced trial for alleged ommission of offences punishable under Sections 304-B, 306, 498-A read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the ‘IPC’).

2. The prosecution version in a nutshell is as follows:

The accused No.1 is the husband of Ratnavva (hereinafter referred to as the ‘deceased’) who was given in marriage to the accused No.1 about 1= years prior to her death and during their marriage, the accused No.1 was given 11 tolas of gold and a cash of Rs.10,000/- alongwith other utensils. In spite of all this, the accused were ill-treating and harassing the deceased Ratnavva coercing her to bring more dowry and accordingly a cheque of Rs.10,000/- was given to the accused No.1 by the mother of the deceased. But in spite of that the accused did not stop the