The judgment established the legal principles related to dowry death, cruelty, and abetment of suicide under the IPC.

1. - Kailash and two others, through this appeal under Section 374 Cr. P.C., have called in question the judgment dated 4th of April 1997 of the learned Additional Sessions Judge No. 3, Alwar, whereby he convicted them under Sections 304-B and 498-A, IPC. and sentenced each of them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years under the first count and 3 year R.l. and a fine of Rs. 250/- under the second count.

2. The case for prosecution, in short, is this. Smt. Sarla (deceased) was married to accused appellant Kailash Chand in 1992. She died on 23rd of August 1996 by fall in a well, which was situate near the house of Kailash Chand. The F.I.R. Ex. P 5 was lodged by Ram Swaroop, P.W. 6, father of the deceased, in which it was stated that Kailash Chand, Babu lal (father in-law) Bhagwati (mother- in-law) Prahlad and Basanta (brothers in-law) used to cause cruelty (sic) to Sarla in relation to their demand of dowry and they caused her death by beating her in the evening of 23rd of August 1996. On this report, a case under Section 498-A and 304 B IPC. was registered. The autopsy of the body was performed by Dr. Amar Singh, P.W. 16, who prepared the Post-Mortem report Ex. R 14. He opined that there were seven injuries on the person of Sarla and one of the injuries was lacerated wound on the scalp occipito parietal region. After the completion of the investigation the police submitted a challan against the three appellants and Prahlad.

3. The trial Court framed charges under Section 304-B and 498-A IPC. against all the four accused, who pleaded not guilty. The prosecution examined P.W. 1 Raju, P.W. 2 Babu Lal, P.W. 3 Shiv Narain, PW. 4 Jai Narain, PW. 5 Jai Kishan, P.W. 6 Ram Swaroop, P.W. 7 Nand Kishore, PW. 8 Phoolwati, P.W. 9 Chameli, P.W. 10 Kajod Ram, P.W. 11 Nathu Ram, P.W. 12 Laia Ram, P.W. 13 Ram Niwas, P.W. 14 Laxman Prasad, P.W. 15 Murlidhar, P.W. 16 Dr. Amar Singh, P.W. 17 Mahavir Singh, P.W. 18 Duli Chand, and P.W. 19 Rajesh Verma. Accused in their statements under Section 313 Cr.P.C. denied the accusation. Accused Prahlad pleaded alibi. The case set up by accused Bhagwati alias Bhagoti and Kailash was that the deceased had fallen in love with accused Basanta and as her husband Kailash was that the deceased had fallen in love with accused Basanta and as her husband Kailash had seen their relations he was annoyed and he expressed his intention to divorce her, on which Sarla left the house on the pretext of calling the answer of nature but she never returned and her dead body was taken out from the well. The accused examined four witnesses in defence. They are D.W. 1 Shivratri Giri, D.W. 2 Raju, D.W. 3 Nadan Singh and D.W. 4 Ghanshyam Das. After hearing the counsel for the parties, the learned Additional Sessions Judge held that Sarla had died in suspicious circumstances. He further held that the death of Sarla was caused by Kailash, Basanta and Bhagwati in relation to the demand of dowry. He, therefore, convicted all the three accused as stated above. He, however, acquitted Prahlad of all the offences charged with.

4. Mr. Bajwa, learned counsel for the appellants contended that the trial Court has not property appreciated the evidence and has erred in convicting the appellants. Pointing out the improvements made by the witnesses in their statements during the course of the trial, he submitted that the testimony of the witnesses should not have been relied upon by the trial court. Pointing out that there were two sisters in the same family, Mr. Bajwa canvassed that it was not possible for the accused to have caused (sic) cruelty to Sarla. He also pointed out that no blood was found in the house of the accused where the injuries are said to have been caused to Sarla, which, he argued, shows that no incident as stated by Phoolwati, P.W. 8, had taken place.

5. On the other hand, the learned Public Prosecutor tried to support the judgment of the trial court. His contention was that the testimony of the witnesses shoul