The prosecution must prove its case beyond reasonable doubt; mere suspicion is insufficient for conviction.

JUDGMENT :

ILESH J. VORA, J.

1. Here is the Appeal by the State against the judgment and order of acquittal.

2. Being dissatisfied by the judgment and order passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bhavnagar, dated 09.04.2004 passed in Sessions Case No.174 of 1999, acquitting the respondents from the offence under Sections 498A, 306, 302, 323, 504 read with Section 114 of the IPC , State has preferred instant appeal under Section 378 of the Cr.P.C.

3. This Court has heard Mr. J. K. Shah, learned Additional Public Prosecutor.

4. Brief facts giving rise to file the present Appeal are that, the respondents accused being a husband, mother- in-law and sister-in-law were tried and prosecution by the Sessions Court, Bhavnagar for the offences as referred above. The marriage of the deceased Hansa was solemnized before one year of the incident with the respondent accused Prakash Dalwadi and family of him was joint family. After six months of the marriage, the deceased came to parental home because of his mental illness and continues disease of headache. She was treated by psychiatric Dr. Uday N. Mehta and Dr. Nikhilesh Desai. After sometime, when the deceased feel better, she again came to matrimonial home. On 09.04.1999, the family members of the deceased came to Botad at matrimonial home and they stayed at the house of the deceased. On the next day i.e. on 10.04.1999, they had a plan to visit religious place at village: Paliyad. In the morning, when deceased did not report to the house, the family members went to the house, where deceased used to stay in the night hours. The deceased despite of knocking down, she did not open the door and after breaking it, it was found that, deceased found hanging with her feet resting on the ground. The respondents accused brought down the dead body of the deceased and taken her in a tempo to the hospital. The father of the deceased PW-4 Ranchhod Kuvarji was having suspicion in his mind that it is not case of suicide but a case of murder and after killing her daughter, the respondents accused hanged her to show that she committed suicide. The FIR came to be lodged by him with the concerned police station, alleging against the respondents accused that his daughter was subjected to mental and physical harassment by the accused, as despite of her ill-health, she was pressurized to do household works as well as agricultural work and in that view of the matter, her in- laws had killed her and after killing her, she was hanged in the room to demonstrate that, she has committed suicide. On the basis of the said FIR, the offence came to be registered with Botad Police Station as C.R.No.61 of 1999 for the offences punishable under Sections 498A , 306 read with Section 114 of the Indian Penal Code against the accused. During the investigation, the accused had been arrested, on the possibility of murder, the I.O. in the presence of Scientific Officer, drew the panchnama of place of occurrence and took necessary photographs, sent the seized articles to the FSL, recorded the statements of the witnesses and at the end, he filed a chargesheet against the accused for the offences as referred above.

5. Since the case was exclusively triable by the Sessions Court, the Court committed the case to the Sessions Court, who has been culminated into Sessions Case No. 174 of 1999.

6. The learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bhavnagar framed charge under the aforesaid sections against the accused to which, they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

7. In order to prove the charge, the prosecution has examined following 11 material witnesses:

Oral evidence