( 1 ) FOR salvaging their lost fortune suffered before the learned additional Sessions Judge, 5th Court, Alipore in Sessions Trial No. 2 (l) 1995 on account of their conviction passed on 31. 3. 99 the Appellants - Prithwish chowdhury (for short, 'a1'), Smt. Sefali Chowdhury (for short, 'a2') and Smt. Pratima Chowdhury (for short, 'a3') (the husband, mother-in-law and unmarried sister-in-law respectively of the deceased Anjana) have preferred this Criminal appeal.

( 2 ) WHILE it may be of poor consolation for little Moumita @ Rini (P. W. 11) to be apprised of the exact cause of the death of her Mother Anjana in the forenoon of 22/5/1991, the same has baffled the Autopsy Surgeon, Dr. P. B. Das (P. W. 10), Additional Chief Medical Officer of Health, Alipore; another expert on the same profession P. W. 2, Prof. Apurba Kumar Nandy, Professor and Head of the Department of Forensic Science and State Medicine, Calcutta medical College and Hospital and Vice-Principal and also former Expert, Prof. Jagat Bandhu Mukherjee and have stirred the investigative skill of P. W. 26, sujit Banerjee and have persuaded the Defence to seek a dent in the prosecution case.

( 3 ) THIS Court is required to assess the position without being caught between Scylla and Charybdis.

( 4 ) MARRIAGE between A1 and Anjana took place on 19/4/1986 which is evident from the deposition of her brothers - Asit Ranjan Bose (P. W. 1), aloke Ranjan Bose (P. W. 12) and Ashoke Ranjan Bose (P. W. 17) and her sister-in-law Sumita Bose (P. W. 4 ). Anjana the wife of A1 for just five years presented the latter a little girl Moumita Rini, who had barely walked in this earth for four years when tragedy struck her and she had the misfortune of losing her mother in such a tender age by way of the designs of the Appellants.

( 5 ) ANJANA had a jinxed matrimony which can be found from the evidence of her brothers and her sister-in-law. Her impaired marital life has also been spoken by some of the neighbours of her matrimonial home. P. W. 7, babli Chakrabarty deposed that "anjana used to report to me that her husband, mother-in-law and the sisters of her husband had been torturing her at her matrimonial home over trifling matters. . . . ". P. W. 8, Dilip Karmakar the very next-door neighbour of the Appellants, although turned hostile, was a very important witness. He also deposed that A1 had occasional quarrel with Anjana. P. W. 3, paltu Bhattacharya whose house was separated by 2-3 houses from the appellants also spoke about the fact that whenever he used to draw water from the tube well, which is situated in front of the house of A1, he heard quarrel between A1 and Anjana inside their house.

( 6 ) THIS is one part of the prosecution case.

( 7 ) MORE precisely we find from the evidence of her elder brother Asit ranjan Bose (P. W. 1) that during the visit of Anjana to their house she used to complain that the articles given at the time of her marriage was not to the liking of the Appellants and she was tortured physically and mentally on account of the same. P. W. 1, along with his Elder Brother and his wife (both of them since deceased), his younger brother Aloke Ranjan Bose (P. W. 12) and Ashoke ranjan Bose (P. W. 17) used to pacify the Appellants so that Anjana might not be tortured.

( 8 ) P. W. 1, Asit Ranjan Bose happens to be the author of the FIR (Ext. 1)which was recorded as the formal FIR (Ext. 10) by P. W. 25, Khagendra Nath das attached to the Jadavpur Police Station.

( 9 ) WE find that the version of the FIR and the substantive evidence of p. W. 1 in Court are quite supplementary of each other. As such, we feel that this is a strong position by itself.

( 10 ) P. W. 17, Ashoke Ranjan Bose brother of deceased Anjana corroborates the version of P. W. 1 in a substantial fashion and P. W. 5, Sumita bose, sister-in-law (Baudi) of Anjana had, in fact, specifically spoken about anjana visiting their house just two weeks prior to her death and reporting ab