The burden to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt lies with the prosecution, and the defense of the accused must be proved by preponderance of probability.

The appellant – State has challenged the judgment of acquittal of respondents/accused dated 4-2-2002 passed by 2nd Adhoc Additional Sessions Judge, Pusad in Criminal Case No. 42/1993.

2. The case of the appellant/prosecution in short is as under :

(i) Deceased Sindhu was married with son of the respondents/accused nos. 1 and 2. As per the evidence of P.W.1 and P.W.8, parents of deceased Sindhu, respondents/accused were ill-treating deceased. Her father-in-law i.e. accused no. 2 suggested her father to transfer 10 acre agricultural land in the name of husband of deceased so that they will get loan for tractor. P.W. 1 father of deceased refused to give 10 Acre land saying that he would be landless. On that count, accused persons were ill-treating her and abusing her. Deceased along with her husband left matrimonial place and started residing at Dhamangaon. After some months, they returned back. On the day of incident, deceased along with her co-sister went to the field for performing agricultural operation.

(ii) It is the case of prosecution that accused nos. 1 to 3 abused deceased. They also abused her parents. She could not tolerate, returned to the house, poured kerosene on her person and set herself on fire. She was admitted in the Government Hospital at Umarkhed. Executive Magistrate recorded her dying declaration, Exhibit 63. P.W. 1 came to know about the incident, went to Umarkhed and asked her as to how she burnt ? Then she told him that “she and her co-sister had gone to the field for performing agricultural operation. She also told him that accused nos. 2 and 3 started abusing her without any reason. She also told him that they were abusing that xxxxx. She also told him that she told accused that what they had to say they should say to her only and they should not abuse her parents. Thereupon, accused no. 2 said 'shut up', xxxx. Thereupon she came back to house, went inside the house and set herself on fire after pouring kerosene on her.”

(iii) Deceased was shifted to Government Hospital, Nanded from Umarkhed. Again her dying declaration was recorded by A.S.I. Sharma (Exhibit 60). Her parents went to Nanded. Her mother P.W.8 inquired the deceased whereupon deceased told her that “accused persons abused her parents, her brother and sister which was beyond her tolerance, therefore, she set herself on fire”. Statement of her mother P.W. 8 was recorded by police. It was treated as report, Exhibit 54. On the basis of report, crime was registered against the accused/respondents.

(iv) During the treatment, Sindhu died. Post mortem was conducted by Dr. Bilolikar. As per the post mortem report, Sindhu died due to burn injuries. Post mortem report is at Exhibit 53. After complete investigation, charge-sheet was filed.

(v) Ad-hoc Additional Sessions Judge, Pusad framed charge vide Exhibit 23. Prosecution has examined in all total 12 witnesses. Statements of accused were recorded. They have denied the material incriminating evidence against them. After hearing the prosecution and defence, learned Adhoc Additional Sessions Judge acquitted all the accused for the offences punishable under Sections 498-A, 306 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. Being aggrieved by the judgment of acquittal, State has filed present appeal.

3. Heard Shri Doifode, learned Additional Public Prosecutor for the State/appellant. He has submitted that prosecution has proved the dying declarations, Exhibit 56, Exhibit 60 and Exhibit 63. In Exhibit 56, she has stated that her husband, mother-in-law, brother-in-law resided together. Since there used to be frequent quarrel between her mother-in-law, brother-in-law on one side and she herself and her husband on other side, she along with her husband used to reside separately. On the day of incident, her mother-in-law and brother-in-law had a serious quarrel with her putting a blame on her that she convinced her husband to reside separately. She could not tolerate the gravity of quarrel, she went insi