The court established that the accused's demand for additional dowry and the resulting harassment led to the victim's death, satisfying the criteria for dowry death under IPC Section 304-B.

JUDGMENT :

A.V. RAVINDRA BABU, J.

1. Challenge in this Criminal Appeal is to the judgment, dated 06.01.2011 in Sessions Case No. 166 of 2006, on the file of III Additional District & Sessions Judge (FTC), Nellore (“Additional Sessions Judge” for short), where under the learned Additional Sessions Judge found the present appellant i.e. A.1 guilty of the charges under Section 304-B of the Indian Penal Code (“IPC” for short) and Section 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act (“DP Act” for short), convicted him under Section 235(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (“Cr.P.C.” for short) and after questioning him about the quantum of sentence, sentenced him to suffer rigorous imprisonment for seven years for the offence under Section 304-B of IPC and further sentenced him to suffer simple imprisonment for one year and to pay fine of Rs.1,000/- in default to suffer simple imprisonment for two months for the offence under Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act and that both the sentences shall run concurrently.

2. The parties to this Criminal Appeal will hereinafter be referred to as described before the learned Additional Sessions Judge for the sake of convenience.

3. The Sessions Case No. 166 of 2006 arose out of a committal order in P.R.C. No. 74 of 2005, on the file of IV Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate, Nellore, relating to Crime No. 95 of 2004 of Indukurpet Police Station.

4. The case of the prosecution, in brief, according to the charge sheet filed by the Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Nellore Rural, is as follows:

(i) A.1 to A.4 are residents of Pogadadoruvuvari Kandriga and A.5 is resident of Thummagunta Village. One Chengalpattu @ Nathineni Sireesha (hereinafter will be referred to as “deceased”) is the wife of A.1. A.2 and A.3 are the parents of A.1. A.4 is younger brother and A.5 is elder sister of A.1. The deceased is the daughter of L.W.1-Thiruvalluru Varalakshmi and L.W.2-Thiruvalluru Subba Rao. L.W.3-Chengi Subrahmanyam is the grandfather of deceased.

(ii) A.1 married the deceased on 08.10.1999 at Sri Dharmarajaswamy Temple, Nellore by following Hindu marriage customs and traditions. At the time of marriage, the parents of the deceased presented cash of Rs.2,00,000/- gold ornaments weighing about 20 sovereigns and household articles worth of Rs.10,000/- to the accused as dowry on the mediation conducted by L.W.7-Thiruvalluru Ankaiah, the own younger brother of A.3. During wedlock, they were blessed with two female children and they are living at P.D. Kandriga village, Indukurpet Mandal. Not satisfied with the dowry given at the time of marriage, all the accused subjected the deceased to physical and mental harassment by demanding her to bring additional dowry in the form of money from her parents. The deceased used to inform L.W.1 about the harassment being met out to her by all the accused. At request of the deceased, L.W.1 gave Rs.5,000/- to A.1 by bidding chit. At another occasion, she also gave Rs.4,000/- to A.1 by borrowing the same for interest. Several times L.W.3 and L.W.8-Naguluru Sreeramulu pacified the disputes between the accused and the deceased.

(iii) While the deceased was carrying second pregnancy, all the accused necked out her from their house in a petty issue. L.W.11-Ankireddipalli Bhaskara Reddy and L.W.12-Gongalreddy Subba Reddy took the deceased to P.D. Kandriga village to the house of accused and warned them not to repeat the harassment against the deceased, but they continued the same harassment and they neglected her though the deceased fell ill. None of the accused took care of her welfare and health and they did not provide medical aid to the deceased. Having come to know about the same, one week prior to 27.08.2004 when the deceased was suffering from loose motions, L.W.1 went to P.D. Kandriga and took the deceased and her two daughters with the permission of the accused to Nellore. After getting her treatment at Nellore, she brought the deceased and the children back to the house of accused situate