( 1. ) This is the appeal of the two accused Harish Chandra and Rajendra, who on their conviction under S.306 of the I.P.C. have each been sentenced to three years R.I.

( 2. ) The appellants-accused Harishchandra and Rajendra are brothers, the latter being younger in age. Mst. Minabai (now deceased), who was the daughter of P.W. 2 Bhikamchand and P.W. 6 Mst. Bhagwati, resident of village Bhategaon, had been married to Rajendra on 20-2-1981. Mst. Minabai had been living with her husband, her in-laws and other members of the family on the second floor of their house situate in Morai Mohalla Indore, and some tenants including P.W. 4 Satishkumar were occupants of other floors of the house. On 17-10-1982, Mst. Mina was found dead in her room of the second floor of the house with hundred per cent burns. Tenants and others were the first to discover this fact; and the appellants-accused who were away from the house at the relevant time had reached the place just some time after.

( 3. ) The case of the prosecution, in brief, was that after the marriage, the appellants-accused and the deceaseds in-laws used to often harass Mst. Mina due to insufficient dowry, received by them, in the marriage. Deceaseds father Bhikamchand had given Rs. 5000/- to his son-in-law viz. the appellant-accused Rajendra, just before he had gone abroad. On his return from the foreign trip, the appellants-accused had demanded Rs. 5000/- for purchase of a T.V. set, with the threat, that, in case the amount was not paid, Mst. Mina would not be seen alive. Mst. Mina, now deceased, had also written a letter to her parents to fulfil their such demand. This demand was, however, never fulfilled, and consequently, came the end of Mst. Mina, who burnt herself to death in the house of her in-laws. P.W. 12 Kushwaha, Officer of Police Station Chhoti Gwaltoli, on learning of the incident at about 11-30 a.m. on 17-10-1982, has rushed to the place, had prepared the last panchnama of the deceased (Ex.P/4), had made the seizure of the articles found at the place and had then got the post-mortem done. During investigation, some letters were seized.

( 4. ) After due investigation, both the appellants-accused were put up for trial for committing offence u/s. 306 of the I.P.C. They abjured the guilt in the trial court and denied to have harassed the deceased Mina to any extent. It was contended by them that they were sufficiently affluent; and as such, had no reason to demand any money from the deceaseds parents nor had they demanded any amount from them at any time whatsoever for any purpose. It was equally contended that the deceaseds parents had just falsely implicated them, out of sheer vengeance, inasmuch as, the appellants-accused and their father were not prepared to shell out Rs. 5,000/-, which the deceaseds father and brother Kailash, were keen to extract from them for their own business. In support of their contention, Kailashs letter (Ex.P-4) was produced. No other evidence however, was adduced in defence.

( 5. ) The trial Court disbelieved the defence; and relying on the oral testimonies of the deceaseds parents, her brother P.W. 11 Kailash and cousin P.W. 10 Mahendra and so also the circumstances, attending the suicide committed, came to hold the view that the appellants-accused had caused so much physical and mental torture to Mst. Mina and had caused such persistent threats to her and to her parents in the matter of insufficiency of initial dowry given, and equally in the matter of their consequent demands of money from her parents, that Mst. Mina was forced to commit suicide; and thus, the appellants-accused had abetted the commission of suicide. Accordingly, the appellants-accused were convicted and sentenced to the extent, as stated at the outset. Hence, now, the present appeal.

( 6. ) S/Shri J.P. Gupta and Bhojwani, learned counsel for the appellants-accused have vehemently argued that the material evidence on the prosecution side is so discrepant and mutuall