ORDER :

1. The present appeal is preferred against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 15th December, 2010, passed in Criminal Appeal No.22 of 2001 by the High Court of Himachal Pradesh at Shimla, whereby the High Court entertaining the appeal under Section 378(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) had dislodged the judgment of acquittal dated 8th September, 2000, passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Hamirpur, H.P., in Sessions Trial No.4 of 1998, whereunder the learned trial Judge had found that the prosecution had not been able to prove the offences punishable under Sections 498A and 306 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the accused persons, namely, the appellant-husband and his parents.

2. The prosecution case, in brief, is that the deceased, Meena Devi, entered into wedlock with Kishore Chand as second wife in May, 1992, as per the Hindu rites and customs. In the wedlock, a son and a daughter were born. After few years of marriage, as time rolled by, the husband started treating wife with cruelty and in 1994 she witnessed the first treatment of cruelty. The parents of the husband also joined in such treatment. As the facts would