JUDGMENT :

Rakesh Mohan Pandey. J.

1. This Criminal Appeal under Section 374(2) of the Cr.P.C. has been filed against the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 06.01.2012 passed in Sessions Trial No. 25/2010 by the learned Ist Additional Sessions Judge, Manendragarh, Baikunthpur, District Koriya (C.G.) whereby the learned trial court has convicted appellant No. 1 & 2 herein for the offence punishable under Section 304-B and 498-A of the I.P.C. and sentenced each of them under Section 304-B to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life, whereas no separate sentence has been awarded under Section 498-A of the I.P.C.

2. In Sessions Trial No. 25/2010, there were three accused persons including appellants herein. During the pendency of the trial, accused No.3 namely Kailashiya Bai @ Kailash, who was motherin- law of deceased - Devwati and wife of appellant No. 2, expired and thus, her name was deleted.

3. As per the prosecution story, marriage of appellant No.1 Jaiprakash Sahu and Devwati (deceased) was solemnized about 4 years prior to date of incident and there is one issue out of their wedlock. Appellant No.2 Bhandari Ram Sahu is father-in-law of the deceased. On 16.10.2008, deceased Devwati consumed oleander seeds and when she fell ill, she was taken to clinic of Doctor Sharma where during treatment she died. Viscera of the deceased was sent for FSL, Raipur vide Ex.-P/15, wherein glycosides poison was found vide FSL report Ex.-P/17.

4. During investigation, it was found that there was demand of Rs.50,000/- in cash and one motorcycle and on that account, the deceased was being ill-treated by the appellants. It has come in the investigation that due to ill-treatment, the deceased used to visit her parental house frequently. Shriram (PW-1) lodged merg intimation on 16.10.2008 vide Ex.-P/1. Inquest was conducted in presence of panchas by Naib Tehsildar vide Ex.-P/4. Dead body of the deceased was sent for postmortem and postmortem examination was conducted by Dr. S.K. Gupta (PW-8) vide Ex.-P/6. The viscera was preserved vide Ex.-P/5 by Doctor. The map was prepared vide Ex.-P/3. The FSL report is Ex.-P/17, where it was found that the deceased died due to consumption of poisonous substance i.e. glycosides. F.I.R. was registered vide Ex.-P/19 and the Statements of the witnesses were recorded.

5. After completion of the investigation, charge sheet was filed against the appellants herein and another co-accused Kailashiya Bai @ Kailash for offence punishable under Sections 498-A, 306 & 34 of the I.P.C before Chief Judicial Magistrate, Baikunthpur, which was committed to the Court of Session, Baikunthpur (Koriya), C.G. for hearing and disposal in accordance with law. The learned trial court framed charges under Section 498-A, 306 & 304-B of IPC against the appellants/accused. The appellants abjured the guilt and entered into defence.

6. In order to bring home the offence, the prosecution examined as many as 16 witnesses and brought 19 documents into record. Statement of the appellants/accused was recorded under Section 313 of Cr.P.C., wherein they denied the guilt, and examined 02 defence witnesses as DW-1 and DW-2 and got exhibited 06 documents D/1 to D/6.

7. The learned trial Court after appreciating the entire evidence available on record, by the impugned judgment, convicted and sentenced the appellants as stated above. However, the trial Court acquitted the appellants of the charge punishable under Section 306 of IPC.

8. Learned counsel for the appellants submits as under :-

(i) that there is no evidence on the record to hold that deceased Devwati died in suspicious condition by committing suicide;

(ii) that from the evidence of the prosecution witnesses, it is quite clear that there was no demand of dowry on the part of the appellants from the deceased or her family members at any point of time;

(iii) that the ingredients of Section 304-B of the I.P.C. are missing, particularly there is no evidence to the effect that soon before