JUDGMENT :

NAVIN SINHA, J.

The appellant, brother of the deceased, is in appeal challenging the acquittal of respondents nos. 1 and 2, the sister-in-law and husband of the deceased, of the charge under Sections 498A and 302/34 I.P.C., affirmed by the High Court.

2. The deceased suffered 95% burn injuries on 17.09.1991 at about 4:30 pm and succumbed in the hospital the next day. There is no eyewitness account. The case of the prosecution is based on circumstantial evidence consisting of the dying declaration of the deceased.

3. The respondents were acquitted as the dying declaration was held not to have been proved in accordance with law and it did not inspire confidence. It vacillated between blaming the husband and the sister-in-law, coupled with the absence of any certificate by the Doctor that the deceased was in a fit state of mind when she made the dying declaration.

4. Shri Rajendra Singhvi, learned counsel for the appellant, submitted that the deceased suffered a homicidal death by burns in the matrimonial home within seventeen months of her marriage.

P.W. 13, the Sub-Inspector in the police control room had deposed that P.W. 20, the constable posted in the hospital had informed t