The judgment establishes that dowry demand and cruelty towards a woman within seven years of marriage can lead to convictions under Sec. 304-B and Sec. 498-A, I.P.C.

A.K.Prasad, J.

1. This criminal appeal, at the behest of the five appellants, is directed against the judgment dated 16.7.99 and order dated 19.7.99 in S.T. No. 612/96 passed by Sri R.P. Shrivastava, Addl. Judicial Commissioner, whereby and whereunder they have been convicted under Sec. 304B read with Sec. 34, I.P.C. and under Sec. 498-A, I.P.C. and sentenced to R.I. for seven years and two years, respectively thereunder. However, the sentences have been ordered to run concurrently.

2. Briefly put, the prosecution case as made out in the written report lodged by informant Israil Ansari on 19.3.96 is as under:

Shaida Khatoon, the sister of the informant was married to appellant Alam Ansari, a resident of village Nagritika tola, within P.S. Ratu (district Ranchi) on 17.1.96. Appellant Saimun Khatoon @ Balkahi and xzmuddin Ansari and her parents-in-law while appellant Shakila @ Git a Khatoon and Babu @ Alam Ansari are the sister and brother, of her husband. On 17.3.96 Jasmuddin Ansari (P.W. 1) went to his Sasural at village Nagri and Saida Khatoon, the deceased at about 9 a.m. at. that time she was hale and hearty and did her domestic work as usual till the evening and on the next day he came to know that Saida Khatoon had died and the people of her Sasural were making preparation for her burial whereupon he returned to his village Jarin Pankhi and gave the same answer to the informant about the death of Saida Kahtoon. And the in-laws of the deceased did not give any information about the death of Saida Khatoon. On being informed by Jasmuddin Ansari the informant accompanied by Abdul Quadir Ansari, Jalaluddin Ansari, Md. Ansari and other villagers rushed to the matrimonial house of his sister and he found that blood and froth were coming out of her mouth and nose. He suspected some foul play and he brought the dead body with the assistance of his villagers to his village home Jari and on inspection red and black marks of assault were found on her dead body. The informant alleged in the written report that the accused-persons were demanding a sum of Rs. 10,000.00 as dowry and due to non-fulfilment of the dowry demand the accused-persons had assaulted and poisoned Saida Khatoon to death. He further alleged that the accused-persons used to treat her with cruelty earlier to her death.

On the basis of written report (Ext. 2), the present case came to be instituted, formal FIR (Ext. 5) was drawn up, Shyam Kishore Singh, ASL Ratu P.S. (who is now dead) held inquest over the dead body vide Ext. 6), and sent the dead body for post-mortem examination, the investigation of the case was made over to R.S. Das the then O.C. Nagri O.P., he visited and inspected the place of occurrence and on completion of investigation charge-sheet was laid in Court against the accused-appellant under Sec. 498-A and 304-B/34, I.P.C.

3. The case was ultimately committed to the Court of Session by Judicial Magistrate, Ranchi on 9.9.96.

4. The main defence is of innocence, bare denial that the accused-appellants made any demand of dowry or tortured the deceased or had caused her death and of false implication on mere suspicion. The further defence is that the deceased died a natural death on account of diarrhea and vomiting.

5. At the trial, the prosecution examined 8 witnesses in support of its case. They are P.W. 1 Jasmuddin Ansari, P.W. 2 Dr. Saroj Kumar who held autopsy on the corpse of Saida Khatoon, P.W. 3 Ismail Mian, the informant and the sister of the deceased, P.W. 4 Seraj Ansari. a witness to the inquest, P.W. 5 Abdul Quadir, P.W. 6 Md. Jahur Ali, P.W. 7 Saikh Jdrish, the father of the deceased and P.W. 8 Radheshyam Das, I.O.

6. The defence, on the other hand, examined two witnesses namely D.W. 1 Md. Mustafa Ansari and D.W. 2 Jamir.

7. On consideration of the evidence and materials on record learned Addi. Sessions Judge held the accused-appellants guilty of the charge under Sections 498-A/304-B read with Sec. 34, I.P.C. and convicted and sentenc