New Delhi:Acquitting a man and his wife in a 2007 case of dowry death, the Supreme Court said cruelty in connection with dowry has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, in a judgment delivered on Friday, said, “In our considered view, therefore, one of the essential ingredients of dowry death, namely, any demand for dowry, was not proved beyond reasonable doubt”.
The bench said, indisputably, the accused have not been convicted of murder, and rightly so, because there was no worthwhile evidence to show that except for the burn injuries, which could be self-inflicted, the victim suffered any other antemortem injury.
“Moreover, the presence of the accused in the house at the time of occurrence is not proved. In such circumstances, the death was most probably suicidal though this would not make a difference for the commission of an offence punishable under Section 304-B IPC (dowry death) if all the other ingredients of dowry death stand proved”, the bench noted.
“Thus, there appears to be a knee-jerk reaction to the unnatural death of their daughter to make out a case of dowry death. Besides that, no independent witness of the vicinity was examined,” the bench observed.
Stressing on the reasonability of doubt, the bench said presumption under Section 113-B of the Evidence Act would not be available to the prosecution. “Hence, in our considered view, the appellants are entitled to be acquitted of the charge of offences punishable under Section 304-B and 498-A IPC,” it said.
The bench was surprised after learning that the deceased parents’ referred to the demand for a motorcycle and cash as a joke.
“We fail to understand how parents could treat their daughter’s multiple reporting of apprehension to her life, on account of demand being not met, as a joke. This creates a serious doubt about the truthfulness of the allegation, more so, when there is no allegation that any such demand was ever raised either before or at the time of marriage,” the court observed, adding that the husband of the deceased was in service and stayed away from her.
The apex court was informed that the deceased was depressed as she could not live with her husband due to a lack of residential accommodation at the place of his posting.
“A photograph of the deceased, regarding which no dispute was raised by the prosecution witnesses, showing her alone with a male stranger had surfaced. In the statement under Section 313 of CrPC, a stand was taken that this photograph had shamed her,” the bench said.
The SC allowed an appeal by Shoor Singh and his wife in connection with the death of their daughter-in-law due to burn injuries in January 2007, within days of the birth of a male child at her matrimonial home in Pauri Garhwal.
The Uttarakhand High Court reduced their sentence from 10 to seven years imprisonment after upholding their conviction for cruelty and dowry death. The appellants’ son, Jitendra Singh, had already served seven years of sentence.
“The appeal is allowed accordingly. The order convicting and sentencing the appellants under Sections 304-B and 498-A of IPC is set aside. The appellants are on bail. They need not surrender. Their bail bond(s) stand discharged,” said the apex court.
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