IMPORTANT POINT
Cruelty and dowry death – Court must guard against false implication of relatives of husband of victim.

ORDER :

1. The appellants have been convicted under Sections 498A, 304B and 306 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The Trial Court had convicted sister-in-law (appellant no.1), husband (appellant no.2) and mother-in-law of the deceased and sentenced them to suffer life imprisonment, 3 years R.I and 10 years R.I for offences under Sections 304B, 498A and 306 of IPC respectively, along with fine and other default stipulations. Both the conviction and the sentence of the present appellants have been upheld in appeal and the High Court has dismissed the appeal. During the pendency of the appeal, one of the appellants i.e. appellant no. 3 (Sova Rani Karmakar, the mother-in-law of the deceased) had passed away and the case against her stands abated.

2. The brief case of the prosecution is as follows:

The deceased, Sonali Karmakar, and the appellant No. 2, Samir Karmarkar were married in March 2003, and out of the wedlock, there is a son who was born on 4.9.2004 (Now 20 years of age). On 2.5.2006 the deceased committed suicide by hanging herself in her matrimonial house. The deceased was alone at the time of the incident and the appellant No. 2, the husband was not even in the house at the time of the incident. The appellant no. 2 was informed and the deceased had been taken to the Krishnanagar hospital where she was declared dead. An inquest report was conducted at the hospital and a post-mortem was conducted on 03.05.2006 by Dr. Ajit Kumar Biswas (PW-15). Post- mortem report shows that there were ligature marks around the neck of the deceased and the nature of the ligature marks shows that it is a case of suicide. Apart from the ligature marks, there were no other ante-mortem injuries on the body of the deceased. The report also showed that the deceased was 22 years of age at the time of her death.

An FIR was lodged by the brother of the deceased at Krishnaganj Police Station, Nadia on 07.05.2006 i.e. after 5 days of the incident, alleging that his sister i.e. the deceased was being harassed by her in-laws on demand of dowry made prior to her death. A case was registered under sections 498A/304B/34 and a chargesheet was filed. Thereafter, Trial Court vide order and judgment dated 5.6.2009 convicted the present appellants and mother-in-law under Sections 498A, 304B, 306 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The case of the prosecution is that there was a harassment of deceased which was connected to the demand of dowry, which led the deceased to commit suicide.

3. Prosecution witnesses PW-1, 3 and 16 have all deposed that there was a demand of dowry about which they were informed when the deceased had come to her maternal house soon before her death. The learned counsel for the State would argue that there is evidence in the form of PW-4 that appellant no. 2 was also having an extramarital affair with another woman which led to frequent discord between the deceased and appellant no. 2 and this was another cause of her harassment.

The learned counsel for the appellants would, however, argue that this cannot be construed as a demand for dowry and would not come within the definition of dowry as defined under Section 2 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 which reads as under:

“Definition of ‘dowry’ – In this Act, “dowry” means any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly –

(a) By one party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage; or

(b) By the parent of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to the marriage or to any other person,

At or before [or any time after the marriage] [in connection with the marriage of the said parties, but does not include] dowry or mahr in the case of persons to whom the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) applies.”

The point which is made by learned counsel for the appellants would be that although a demand can be made either before or “any time after the marriage”, it should be in connection with the marriage of the sa