2026:CGHC:1007 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR CRA No. 219 of 2022

1 - Gopal Kesharwani S/o Shri Bharat Kesharwani Aged About 28 Years R/o Village Sukulpara, Kharaud, Police Station Shivarinarayan, Civil And Revenue District Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh., District : Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh

2 - Sarojani Bai W/o Shri Bharat Kesharwani Aged About 60 Years R/o Village Sukulpara, Kharaud, Police Station Shivarinarayan, Civil And Revenue District Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh., District : Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh ... Appellants versus State Of Chhattisgarh Through The Station House Officer, Police Station- Shivarinarayan, Civil And Revenue District Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh., District :

Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh ... Respondent {Cause title, as taken from Case Information System}

For Appellants : Mr. Aman Kumar Kesharwani, Advocate.

For Respondent : Mr. Sanjeev Pandey, Dy. Advocate General.

{Hon’ble Mr. Justice Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi}

Judgment on Board

07/01/2026

1. Challenge in this appeal is to the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 4^th January, 2022 passed by Upper Sessions Judge {Fast Track Court}, Janjgir, District Janjgir-Champa (for brevity, “Fast Track Court” ) in Sessions Case No. 131 of 2016, whereby the learned Fast Track Court, after holding the appellants guilty, convicted and sentenced each of them in the following manner:-

Conviction Sentence Under Section 304 (B) of IPC Rigorous imprisonment for seven years with fine of Rs.5,000/-, in default thereof, to undergo additional rigorous imprisonment for two months to each of them.

2. Case of the prosecution, in brief, is that marriage of deceased namely Vandana Kesharwai was solemnized with the appellant No. 1/accused on 20.04.2014 as per their rites & customs. Appellant No. 2 is mother of appellant No. 1. It is alleged that after few months of marriage, the appellants started harassing the deceased showing dissatisfaction with the dowry items received at the time of marriage, therefore, they tortured the deceased mentally & physically for bringing Rs.50,000/- from her parents and on account of such humiliation and frustration, on 04.09.2015, she set herself on fire by pouring kerosene oil on herself, as a result thereof, she sustained burn injuries to the extent of 90 %, thereafter, she was taken to Dr. Baghel Hospital, Shivrinarayan for treatment, from where she was referred to Burn & Trauma Research Centre, CIMS Hospital, Bilapur for further treatment, where during treatment, she succumbed to burn injuries on 05.09.2015. Information in this regard was sent by the CIMS Hospital to the police. Based on which, Police Station Tarbahara, District Bilaspur registered un-numbered merg report (Ex.P-17). Inquest report of dead body of the deceased was prepared by Jai Uraon, the then Executive Magistrate (PW-10). Postmortem of dead body of the deceased was conducted by Dr. Manish Shrivastava, Medical Officer (PW-6), in which, vide Postmortem report (Ex.P-8), he opined that cause of death of deceased was shock due to antimortem burn. Un- numbered merg enquiry was transferred to police Station Shivrinarayan, within whose jurisdiction, the said incident had occurred. In merg enquiry, it was found that on account of harrassment meted out to the deceased by the appellants on demand of dowry / money, she committed suicide by pouring kerosene oil upon herself. Hence, FIR (Ex.P-14) was registered against the present appellants, elder brother of appellant No. 1 /husband (jeth), his wife (jethani) and younger brother of husband (Devar). Statements of the witnesses were recorded. One chimni, match box, one Mangal Sutra, two pieces of bangles, burn clothes and concrete of place of incident were seized vide seizure memo (Ex.P-3). Spot map (Ex. P-4) was prepared by the police whereas spot map (Ex.P-5) was prepared by Patwari (PW-9). Marriage card of deceased and appellant No. 1 was seized vide seizure memo (Ex.P-6). The appellants were arrested. Af