Point of Law: there might be a discord and bad breath between the husband and wife with regard to certain issues but rest of the attending circumstances nowhere indicates that the applicant's conduct at any point of time during her life time falls within the category of Section 107 of the I.P.C. i.e. either the husband has instigated her or hatched any conspiracy for doing any act or illegal omission pursuant to the conspiracy or intentionally aided her to act upon certain thing. Mere levelling a bald allegation of dowry harassment with regard to additional dowry the husband could be prosecuted for offence u/s 498A I.P.C. but certainly not within the four corners of Section 306 I.P.C.

JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Shri Amit Daga, learned counsel for the applicant; learned A.G.A. and perused the record of the case.

2. Applicant, Arvind, who is husband, facing incarceration since 25.5.2019 in connection with Case Crime No.281 of 2019, u/s 304-B, 498-A I.P.C. and Section 3/4 of Dowry Prohibition Act, P.S.-Kotwali, District-Jhansi. He is seeking bail by means of the present bail application in aforesaid case crime.

3. Long and short of the prosecution case, as culled out from the F.I.R., is that the applicant-Arvind happens to be the husband of deceased-Ms. Poonam Kushwaha, who was the daughter of Prakash Chandra Kushwaha (the informant). On 27.6.2018 both of them were tied into nuptial knot as per Hindu Rites and Customs. Thereafter, an unfortunate incident took place whereby around 6.00 in the evening of 17.5.2019 the wife has committed suicide by hanging herself. For this incident, the informant lodged an F.I.R., on the same day i.e. 17.5.2019 at 22.57 hours. Thus, it is clear that within less than a year (11 months to be precise) of the marriage this unfortunate incident took place whereby the wife has lost her life by hanging.

4. Galvanized by the incident, her father within no time of the incident has succeeded in lodging the F.I.R., roping in all eight members of the in-laws including the husband-applicant, irrespective of their inter se relationship with the husband and their respective roles in commission of the offence. As per prevailing practice in the society now a days, a tailor-made story was stitched by mentioning that during the marriage of her daughter Poonam, the informant has spent Rs.9 lacs approximately, but her greedy husband and her in-laws were demanding Rs.5 lacs and a car as an additional dowry. On this score the deceased was severely harassed and tortured by all the named accused persons. On the fateful date and time, a call was made by his son-in-law (Arvind-Applicant) on the mobile phone of informant's daughter Neha, informing her sister has committed suicide by hanging herself and she was admitted in medical college. Soon after, the informant with his family members reached to the medical college, he saw that his daughter was lying dead. Thereafter he leveled a general and omnibus allegation for alleged torture/harassment against all the accused persons, resultantly she hanged herself. It was also revealed from the F.I.R., that at the time of incident, the deceased was carrying the pregnancy of about six months.

5. There is specific allegation of demand of Rs.5 lacs and a four wheeler as an additional dowry against all accused persons, attributing a general and omnibus role of torturing the deceased with regard to said additional dowry.

6. The autopsy of the deceased was conducted on 18.5.2019 by a panel of doctors at Post Mortem House Jhansi. As per the findings of the doctors, the deceased was 25 years of age. The doctors do not find any external injury over her person except singular ligature mark around her neck, obliquely placed. Hyoid bone was found intact. But her Uterus was detected as Gravid, in which a male foetus was present, aged about 5-6 months. As per the opinion of doctors, SHE DIED ON ACCOUNT OF ASPHYXIA AS A RESULT OF ANTE MORTEM HANGING.

7. During investigation the police has recorded the statements u/s 161 Cr.P.C. of the informant, Prakash Chandra Kushwaha; Rahul S/o informant; Geeta Devi W/o informant; Km. Neha D/o informant; Jitendra Kumar Dwivedi; Neeraj Kushwaha and Ravi Kushwaha. On a plain reading of all these statements, which are almost repetition of prosecution story as mentioned in the F.I.R., with minor and insignificant alterations. In their respective statements all these witnesses have alleged that, on account of demand of additional dowry in the shape of Rs.5 lacs cash and a four wheeler by the deceased, she was harassed and tortured on that score, and thereafter, she eventually was hanged by all her in-laws, including her husband. Only startling feature in these