JUDGMENT

Dinesh Maheshwari. J.

Preliminary

1. This appeal by special leave is directed against the common judgement and order dated 05.03.2008 [in Criminal Appeal Nos. 341-DB of 1998 and 359-DB of 1998.] whereby, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh has partly affirmed the judgment and order dated 09.06.1998 in Sessions Case No. 63 of 1997 by the Additional Sessions Judge, Ambala; and has upheld the conviction of the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code ('IPC') even while acquitting the co-accused persons of the charge under Section 302 read with Section 120-B IPC.

1.1. In a brief outline of the material aspects, it may be noticed that in the present case, the appellant was charged with the imputations that she killed her husband by strangulation and, with the help of co-accused persons (her brothers), hanged the dead body in one of the rooms in the house, as if it were a case of suicide. The matter rested on circumstantial evidence where, according to the prosecution, the relations of the deceased (husband) and the appellant (wife) were too strained; the deceased had stated threat perceptions that his wife might kill him, for sh