Mr. V. Bharathidasan, J.

1. The accused in S.C.No.97 of 2008 on the file of the Assistant Sessions (Chief Judicial Magistrate) Court, Krishnagiri are the appellants herein. They stood charged for the offences under Sections 498(A) and 304(B) IPC and Section 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act. By judgment, dated 13.02.2009, trial court, convicted both the accused under Sections 498-A, 304(B) IPC and 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 3 years and to pay a fine of Rs.1000/-, in default, to undergo simple imprisonment for 3 months for the offence under Section 498-A IPC and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs.2000/-, in default, to undergo simple imprisonment for 6 months for the offence under Section 304-B IPC and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 2 years and to pay a fine of Rs.2000/-, in default, to undergo simple imprisonment for 3 months for the offence under Section 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act. Challenging the above said conviction and sentence, the appellants/accused are before this Court with this Criminal Appeal.

2. Today, the learned Government Advocate (Crl.side) appearing for the respondent would submit that pending appeal, the second Appellant Muniappa Gounder died on 29.06.2016, and she has also filed a memo along with the death certificate. Recording the same, the appeal against A2 is dismissed as abated.

3. The case of the prosecution, in brief, is as follows:-

The deceased, in this case, one Chitra, is the wife of A1 and daughter-in-law of A2. The marriage between A1 and the deceased took place in the year 2000 and they have two children out of the wedlock. After marriage, for 3 years they were living happily. Thereafter, the deceased complained to P.W.1 that A1 had illicit intimacy with another lady and A1 also demanded Rs.20,000/- from the deceased, which was also given by P.W.1. After some time, A2 misbehaved with the deceased and hence, the deceased came to her parental house. Thereafter, there was a mediation in the village and on the advice of the mediators, the deceased once again went to her matrimonial house. But the accused once again demanded Rs.20,000/-. Since P.W.1 have no money, he gave some dead woods for the brickklin run by the accused. Four days prior to the occurrence, P.W.1 invited both A1 and the deceased to his house and P.W.1 has given Rs.20,000/- to them. Thereafter, on 06.07.2006, the appellant informed P.W.1 that the deceased had committed suicide by hanging. Immediately, he went to A1's house and found her daughter dead. Then P.W.1 went to the Village Administrative Officer, P.W.9 and gave a statement, which was recorded by P.W.9. Based on the same, P.W.9 filed a complaint before the Sub Inspector of Police, P.W.14.

4. P.W.14, Sub-Inspector of Police, on receipt of the complaint, registered a case in Crime No.350 of 2006 for the offences under Sections 498-A and 306 IPC. Then, he sent the First Information Report (Ex.P.16) to the higher officials.

5. P.W.15, Inspector of Police, attached to the respondent police, on receipt of the First Information Report commenced investigation and proceeded to the scene of occurrence and prepared an Observation Mahazar (Ex.P.2) and drew a Rough Sketch (Ex.P.17) in the presence of the witnesses and he has also recorded the statements of the witnesses and based on the investigation, he altered the case into Section 498-A and 304-B IPC and the alteration report is Ex.P.19.

6. In the mean time, on receipt of the First Information Report, since the death has occurred within a period of 7 years, P.W.13, RDO, conducted inquest on the dead body in the presence of the panchayathars and he prepared an inquest report (Ex.P.15) and also an enquiry report (Ex.P.8) and he was of opinion that the death was not due to dowry demand. Then, he sent the dead body of the deceased for postmortem to the Government Hospital, Kaveripattinam.

7. P.W.11,Doctor, working in t