Conviction under Section 498A of IPC requires clear evidence of physical or mental cruelty, which was not established in this case.

JUDGMENT :

CHAITALI CHATTERJEE DAS, J.

1. This criminal appeal has been filed against an judgement and order of conviction dated January 9, 2014 passed by the learned Court of 7th Additional Sessions, Judge, Alipore in session trial no. 1(1) 03 for commission of offence punishable under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced the Appellant and his mother to suffer rigorous imprisonment for a period of 3 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 2000 each in default to suffer simple imprisonment for six months for committing the offence punishable under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.

Brief fact of the case

2. A complaint was lodged before the officer in charge, Police Station Kasba by Sushil Kumar Sarkar on March 19, 2002 alleging that his youngest daughter got married with the present Appellant on March 6, 1997, according to Hindu rights and custom, and after marriage, they started living together in his residence at Eastend Park. Few months after the marriage, the husband along with the parents-in-law of his daughter and their sister-in-law started torturing upon his daughter, both physically and mentally on demand of more money and also expressed their dissatisfaction over the articles which were given at the time of marriage. On several occasion, his daughter informed him about the torture inflicted on her, but considering her future, the de-facto complainant did not lodge any complaint prior to the instant complaint. It was also alleged that the son-in-law and his parents also assaulted this complainant several times and they also instigated the son-in-law as a result he also assaulted the daughter of this de-facto complainant. It was further alleged that on April 15, 2002 at4:30 hours, a local person namely Kashinath Saha came to his place and informed that his daughter was lying in burnt condition at her in-laws place. The de-facto complainant, and his younger brother, and others went to the matrimonial house of the daughter and found her lying in burnt condition on the floor of the first floor and anguishing in pain. The family members did not arrange to take her to hospital and then the de-facto complainant and his brother took him to S.S.K.M Hospital and admitted her there, but within few hours, his daughter expired.

3. It is the further case of the de-facto complainant that his son-in-law and the parents-in-law conspired to kill his daughter and therefore set her on fire due to which his daughter died. Since he had to take his daughter to the hospital, he was late in lodging the complaint. On the strength of this complaint, Kasba P.S case no. 56 dated April 16, 02 under Section 498A/304B/420 B, I.P.C started and on completion of investigation, the charge-sheet was submitted under Section 498/304B/34 of the Indian penal code. The offences being exclusively triable by the Court of Session, the matter was committed to the learned session judge and the same was transferred before the learned Court of Additional Session, Judge, 7th Court, Alipore. The charge was framed by the learned Court against four accused persons for the offence committed under Section 498A/304-B read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and the content of the same was read over and explained to the accused persons to which they pleaded, not guilty and claim to be tried. Hence the trial commenced.

4. In order to bring the charges the prosecution adduced seven witnesses and the learned court after considering the evidences as well as the submissions made before the learned Court by both the learned Advocates, passed the order of co