The court concluded that mere harassment without direct instigation to commit suicide does not satisfy the requirements of Sections 306 and 498-A IPC, thus leading to the acquittal of the appellant.

JUDGMENT :

RAJANI DUBEY, J.

1. This appeal arises out of the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 23.12.2006 passed by the Sessions Judge, Durg (C.G.) in Sessions Trial No. 180/2006, convicting the accused/appellant as under:-

2. According to the prosecution case, deceased Venu Gupta and appellant Ashok Kumar Gupta were in a love relationship for a year prior to the incident and they had performed marriage in Dongargarh temple and lived together as husband and wife. Meanwhile, the deceased became pregnant and both of them got married in the Court on 24/4/2006 before the Marriage Officer, Durg, had obtained a certificate (Ex.P-3) and started living together. During this period, the appellant started misbehaving and harassed her mentally and physically, due to which there was a rift between the two, and deceased Venu Gupta told her parents and family members about the continuous harassment by the appellant. In this regard, a social meeting was also convened, wherein appellant Ashok Gupta gave assurance letter to his wife Venu Gupta that he would not harass and torture her again, but even after the assurance given by the appellant, he did not stop harassing Venu Gupta, due to which the deceased got upset and hanged herself with sari, due to which she died. The information of death was given to the police station by deceased Venu Gupta's father-in-law Motilal Gupta, on which a merg intimation (Ex.P-10) was recorded. During investigation, inquest (Ex.P-2) on the body of deceased was prepared by Executive Magistrate, and the dead body was sent for postmortem examination to Govt. Hospital, Durg, which was conducted by Dr. S.R. Churendra (PW-14), who gave his report under Ex.P-22 noticing following injuries/symptoms :-

Both eyes were closed, conjunctives congested, pupil dilated and fixed. Face congested. Mouth was little open, dried salvia from left angle of mouth, nails were bluish in colour and there was no external injury.

Dark brownish mark of ligature was present above thyroid cartilage oblique in anteriorly in upper part of neck, then following lower border of mandible side upto left angle of mandible directing upward. In right side oblique placed to middle of neck, right laterally then directed upward backward posteriorly. Skin beneath ligature was dried parchment like. Ecchymosis present in border of ligature, and ligature material was removed.

The doctor has opined the cause of death of deceased due to be hanging and mode of death was asphyxia.

3. During the course of investigation, statements of the witnesses were recorded and after completion of usual investigation, charge sheet was filed against the appellant under Sections 306, 304-B and 498-A of IPC before the jurisdictional Court.

4. The trial court framed charges against the appellant under Sections 498-A and 306 of IPC. The accused/appellant abjured his guilt and pleaded innocence.

5. So as to hold the accused/appellant guilty, the prosecution examined 14 witnesses in all. One defence witness was also examined in the case. Statement of the accused/appellant was also recorded under Section 313 of Cr.P.C. in which he denied the circumstances appearing against him in the prosecution case, pleaded innocence and false implication.

6. The trial Court after hearing counsel for the respective parties and considering the material available on record, by the impugned judgment has convicted the accused/appellant as mentioned in para-1 of t