The central legal point established in the judgment is the requirement to establish cruelty and harassment in connection with the demand of dowry, the occurrence of death within seven years of marriage, and the proximate and live-link between the effect of cruelty based on dowry demand and the concerned death for the application of section 304-B of Indian Penal Code.

ORDER : – This criminal revision under section 397 read with section 401 of the Criminal Procedure Code is filed by the petitioner being aggrieved by the order dated 2-12-2022 passed by the III Additional Sessions Judge, Barwani, district Barwani in S. T. No. 131/2019 by which the learned Judge has framed additional charge against the petitioner for offence under section 304-B of Indian Penal Code.

2. The brief facts of the case is that on 3-10-2019 a merg intimation was registered at Police Station Palsood by the complainant Doorsingh alleging that on 1-10-2019 after having dinner he and all his family members had gone to sleep at around 9:30 P.M. in their respective rooms. When Singabai, wife of the complainant got up she saw that Mamta was not present on her cot. A search was carried out for Mamta but the same was in vain. It was also informed by the complainant that Santribai the first wife of the petitioner was from Badara Faliya and when she had gone to Gujarat for livelihood along with her father, the petitioner married Mamta and she is nine months pregnant. It was further alleged that when the brother of the complainant took his goats for grazing in the agricultural field, he saw the dead body of Mamta lying in the well.

3. On the said intimation, Merg was registered and an inquiry was carried out. The body of Mamta was taken out from the well and sent for postmortem. Statements of the family members of the deceased were recorded and they all stated that the petitioner was not treating his wife Mamta properly and as a consequence, she committed suicide. Based on the said allegations, FIR was registered at police station Palsood for an offence under section 498-A, 306 of Indian Penal Code at Crime No. 231/2019. The said charges were denied by the petitioner.

4. Thereafter, on 25-11-2022 an application was filed by the prosecution stating that the deceased had died within seven years of her marriage, and therefore, the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Barwani framed charge under section 304-B of Indian Penal Code against the petitioner.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the learned trial Court has erred by not appreciating the fact that assuming the allegations of the prosecution story to be true which has come in the charge-sheet and the Court statements of the family members of the deceased, nowhere any of he witnesses have stated that the petitioner has demanded any dowry from the deceased or from her family members. Nowhere it has come that soon before the death the deceased was harassed by the petitioner for dowry. These are basic and mandatory requirements of section 304-B of Indian Penal Code and in absence of the same, no charge under section 304-B of Indian Penal Code is made out against the applicant.

6. The learned trial Court has erred by not appreciating the fact that the application dated 25-11-2022 which has been filed by the prosecution to additionally frame a charge against the applicant for an offence under section 304-B of Indian Penal Code, no reason has been assigned as to why the said charge should be framed except that the deceased had died within the seven years of her marriage. Hence, prays that this revision be allowed and the impugned order framing charge under section 304-B of Indian Penal Code be set aside.

7. Learned counsel for the State has supported the order impugned and prays for dismissal of this revision.

8. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have also perused the record.

9. It is pertinent to reproduce the provisions of section 304-B of Indian Penal Code which reads as under : –

304-B. Dowry death. – (1) Where the death of a woman is caused by any burns or bodily injury or occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry, such death sh