Hon’ble Dinesh Kumar Singh, J.—The present appeal has been preferred by the accused/appellant, Santosh against the judgement and order dated 31.10.2002 whereby the accused/appellant has been convicted and sentenced under Section 498A IPC for a period of 2 years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs. 2,000/- and in the event of non payment of fine, additional 6 months rigorous imprisonment. He has also been convicted and sentenced under Section 304B IPC for 10 years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs. 5000/- and in default of payment of fine one year additional rigorous imprisonment. It was further directed that both the sentences will run concurrently.

2. The prosecution case as imerges from the record is that on 1.11.1998 at 9:00 AM Bauwn, brother of the accused/appellant reached the residence of the complainant/Ramnath, father of the deceased Geeta and informed him that Geeta had died out of burn injuries. On receiving this information, the complainant and other family members reached the residence of the accused/appellant and from looking at the dead body of the deceased, Geeta they believed that husband, brother in law, father in law and two sisters in law of the deceased Geeta assaulted the deceased and set her on fire.

3. It was also alleged in the FIR Exhibit ka-1 that the accused/appellant Santosh used to torture the deceased for dowry and the entire family had been demanding dowry. They had been pestering the deceased to bring money from her parents for setting up a business. The parents twice gave the money but their greed increased and they started demanding Rs. 50,000/- more whereas at the time of marriage, the parents and relatives gave many articles such as scooter, bed, sofa, utensils, gold and silver jewellery etc., and performed the marriage with fanfare. The complainant believed that mother in law Munni, father in law Hari Shankar, husband Santosh, brother in law Bauwn, and two sisters in law namely Bittan and Rashmi had killed the deceased. After Investigation, charge-sheet was filed and the accused namely Munni Devi, Harishankar, Bauwn@ Sandeep, Ms. Bitton @ Neetu and Mr. Rashmi were charged under Sections 302, 304B IPC.

4. The prosecution produced as many as 9 documents namely; FIR Exhibit Ka-1, Chik report Exhibit Ka-2 copy of the G.D. Exhibit Ka-3, Inquest report Exhibit Ka-4, Post Mortem report Exhibit Ka-5, Site map Exhibit Ka-6, Sample of earth Exhibit Ka-7, Marriage Card Exhibit Ka-8 and Charge-sheet Exhibit Ka-9 to prove its case besides witnesses P.W.-1 Ramnath, father of the deceased, P.W.-2 Arun Kumar, brother of the deceased, P.W.3 Rajendra Singh Head Constable, P.W. 4 Arun Kumar Mishra, Naib Tehsildar, P.W. 5 Dr. Rajiv Khare and P.W.6 Shri Ram Charan C.O.

5. In their statements recorded under Section 313 CrPC, the accused denied any dowry demand by them and said that the witnesses had falsely deposed and they had been wrongly implicated. They further said that the marriage of the deceased with the accused/appellant took place more than 7 years ago.

6. Ramnath, the complainant, P.W. 1 reiterated the FIR version of the incident and further said that the marriage between the deceased Geeta and the accused/appellant Santosh was performed on 26.11.1995. He said that in the first year of marriage Geeta had come twice-thrice and stayed with them but she did not make any complain regarding demand of dowry or any other complain against her in laws. A girl child was born after one year of the marriage and at that time she said to him that there was requirement of some money and her in-laws were torturing her. He also said that the deceased informed him that her husband was unemployed. The deceased asked him to give Rs. 10,000/- He said to her that next time when she would visit he would give Rs. 10,000/-. Next time when she visited again, he gave Rs. 10,000/-. After 4-6 months, she again visited her parents but she did not make any complaint. In the third year marriage, a baby boy was born to