Judgment

Thomas, J.—Death of an Armyman’s young wife was depicted as a case of murder and the Armyman was sent up for trial. Sessions Court found it a murder and him the murderer. Consequently Jeet Singh, the respondent was convicted of uxoricide and was sentenced to imprisonment for life under Section 302 of IPC. But a Division Bench of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh held it is to be a case of suicide and exonerated him of the charges. This appeal is by the State of Himachal Pradesh by special leave.

2. Sudarshana Devi, wife of accused Jeet Singh, was a young fair and fashionable lass, but “Leucoderma” in its nascent stage had erupted small white patches on her bosom. This became the cause of dislike for her husband towards her as he mistook it to be a kind of leprosy. Though their marriage was solemnised more than three years before her death Jeet Singh was spending most of his days in the Army field except for short intervals when he used to go home availing himself of the annual leave. So Sudarshana Devi had to remain in her nuptial home mostly without her husband nearby, but putting up with the unsavoury epithets intermittently hurled by her mother-in-law and young sister-