1. The appellant herein challenges the conviction and sentence against him under Section 498A IPC in S.C.No.650 of 2006 of the Court of Session, Palakkad. The said case relates to the commission of suicide by one Pushpalatha by burning herself. Pushpalatha abandoned her parents, and left the house, and thereafter joined the appellant. They started living as man and wife, sans a legal marriage, and it was only a live-in relationship. They continued the relationship for about four years. On 03.10.2005, Pushpalatha burnt herself, and on 07.10.2005, she died at the hospital due to extensive burns, while undergoing treatment. Her mother made a complaint before the Police, on the basis of which the Police registered a crime, and after investigation, the Police submitted final report in Court against the appellant under Sections 498A and 306 IPC.

2. The prosecution case is that deceased Pushpalatha had been subjected to much mental and physical cruelty and harassment by the accused by a course of cruel conduct, and when she found it unbearable, she burnt herself to death.

3. On committal, the case came up before the Court of Session, from where it was made over to the learned Additional Sessions Judge (Adhoc-III), Palakkad, for trial and disposal.

4. The accused appeared before the trial court, and pleaded not guilty to the charge framed against him under Sections 498A and 306 IPC. The prosecution examined 17 witnesses in the trial court, and proved Exts.P1 to P15 documents, including the statements given by the deceased under Section 32 of the Indian Evidence Act. The learned Judicial Magistrate, who recorded the statement, is one of the 17 witnesses examined in the trial court.

5. When examined under Section 313 Cr.P.C., the accused denied the incriminating circumstances, and projected a defence that he had not at any time treated deceased Pushpalatha with any sort of cruelty, and that their live-in relationship had been quite cordial and happy.

6. On an appreciation of the evidence, the trial court found the accused not guilty under Section 306 IPC, and accordingly, he was acquitted of the said offence, but the trial court found the accused guilty under Section 498A IPC. On conviction, he was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years, and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/-, by judgment dated 22.12.2009. The said judgment of conviction is under challenge in this appeal.

7. The learned counsel for the appellant submitted that the factual aspects as regards the allegations of cruelty need not be probed into in this case, because the conviction cannot be sustained under the law for the reason that the accused had not at any time married deceased Pushpalatha in accordance with the customary rites and ceremonies. The legal issue raised by the appellant is that for a conviction under Section 498A IPC, there must be a legal relationship of husband and wife between the deceased and the accused.

8. Even according to the prosecution, there had only been a live-in relationship between the deceased and the accused. PWs 1 and 2 are the parents of the deceased. Their evidence is that some four years prior to the commission of suicide, Pushpalatha left the house by abandoning the parents, and she joined the accused. She started living with him, and they thus continued to live as man and wife for about four years. The parents do not know the cause of death, or why Pushpalatha committed suicide. They have no case in evidence that Pushpalatha had been treated cruelly by the accused, or that she had been mentally or physically harassed by the accused during the four years of their live-in relationship.

9. The prosecution very much relied on the Ext.P3 statements of the victim recorded under Section 32 of the Indian Evidence Act. PW17 is the learned Magistrate who proved the Ext.P3 statements, and PW6 is the doctor who certified the fit mental condition of the deceased to give such a statement. In this statement, deceased Pushpalatha has giv