Harassment of wife by husband, per se, does not attract Section 306 IPC if the wife commits suicide. The prosecution needs to prove something more than mere harassment to establish the offense under Section 306 IPC.

Rajiv Sharma, J.

The State has come in appeal against Judgment dated 28.2.2008 rendered by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Solan, District Solan, Himachal Pradesh in Sessions Trial No. 14-S/7 of 2007, whereby respondent-accused (hereinafter referred to as 'accused' for convenience sake), who was charged with and tried for offence under Section 306 IPC, has been acquitted.

2. Case of the prosecution, in a nutshell, is that deceased Chanda who was the wife of accused Raj Kumar had been married about 5 years back. Accused was residing at Navgaon near Darla Maur and was a tenant of one Sohan Lal (PW-4). On 3.7.2007 at about 6.50 PM, ASI Sohan Lal (PW-12) received information from IGMC Shimla. He deputed HC Santokh Singh to proceed to Shimla on 4.7.2007. ASI Sohan Lal took over the investigation and recorded the statement of the father of the deceased, namely Daya Ram vide Ext. PW-1/A. On the basis of said statement, he prepared Rukka Ext. PW-7/A and sent the same through Constable Ashok Kumar to the Police Station, Darlaghat. FIR Ext. PW-7/B was recorded. Deceased Chanda had died by the time and as such, after preparation of inquest papers, Ext. PW-1/B and Ext. PW-1/C, he sent the dead body for post-mortem. Post-mortem report is Ext. PW-6/B. According to the averments made in the statement under Section 154 CrPC, accused from the inception of marriage had been maltreating his daughter and often used to resort to beatings without any rhyme or reason. Deceased was stated to have even attempted suicide earlier but due to his insistence she had been sent to her matrimonial house. As per the statement of the complainant, on 2.7.2007, about 2-3 guests had come to the house of the accused at Navgaon and he had coerced the deceased Chanda to prepare meals for them. But since their was no ration in the house she could not oblige the demand so made, which resulted in the accused hurling abuses and giving beatings to her. On this, the deceased had bolted herself in the kitchen and after sprinkling kerosene on herself had set herself ablaze. Because of burning she had been shifted to IGMC Shimla on 3.7.2007, where she had died. He came to know about the incident on 3.7.2007 at night that the deceased Chanda had died due to the ill-treatment meted out to her by the accused Raj Kumar. Case property was taken into possession and sent to FSL Junga. Reports of FSL Junga are Ext. PW-12/D and Ext. PW-12/E. Investigation was completed. Challan was put in the Court after completing all the codal formalities.

3. Prosecution has examined as many as 13 witnesses to prove its case against the accused. Accused was also examined under Section 313 CrPC. He pleaded innocence. Learned trial Court acquitted the accused. Hence, this appeal.

4. Mr. Neeraj K. Sharma, Deputy Advocate General has vehemently argued that the prosecution has proved its case against the accused.

5. Mr. Virender Thakur, Advocate, has supported the judgment dated 28.2.2008.

6. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and also gone through the record carefully.

7. PW-1 Daya Ram is the father of the deceased. He deposed that he had five daughters and two sons. Out of them four daughters had been married. Chanda, the deceased, was fourth daughter and was married to accused Raj Kumar about 5 years back. Accused was residing at Navgaon near Darla Mour. He was tenant of one Sohan Lal. Raj Kumar worked as a contractor. Initially, the relations between the accused and deceased were cordial. But later, accused kept changing his residence and whenever his daughter visited him, she used to complain that the accused is maltreating her. Accused did not use to give ration to the deceased. On 2.7.2007, his daughter had called him at about 9.00 AM and complained that the labour of the accused was pestering her for payments and accused was at rest house Jwalamukhi. She also told that accused had taken payments from the contractor but was not paying to the labourers. He assured her that