- (1.) The appellants before us were charged of offences punishable under Sections 304-B and 498-A, IPC and were sentenced to undergo RI for a period of 7 and 2 years respectively by the Sessions Judge, East Godavari District at Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. Said conviction and sentence of the appellants came to be confirmed by the High Court of Judicature, Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad by the impugned judgment. Now they are in appeal before us. Prosecution case necessary for disposal of this appeal is as follows: The first appellant before us is the son of appellant Nos. 2 and 3 while appellant No. 2 is the husband of appellant No. 3. The first appellant was married to one Aruna Kumari which took place on 18-5-1990. It is the prosecution case that Aruna Kumari was the daughter of the sister of A-1. Thus, in reality Aruna Kumari had married her own maternal uncle. It is the further case of the prosecution that the appellants were constantly making demand from the parents of Aruna Kumari which, inter alia, included 1/3rd share in a house belonging to the parents of Aruna Kumari. Thus, the appellants were constantly harassing said Aruna Kumari. The prosecution in support of its case relating to harassment relied upon Exs. P-4 to P-6 - letters written by Aruna Kumari between 12th May and 5th August, 1991. Prosecution also relies upon a Panchayat Ex. P-8 which took place and an agreement Ex. P-9 executed by the accused 1 and 2 undertaking to look after Aruna Kumari properly and not to harass her. It is the further case of the prosecution that on 12-7-1992 at about 3 p.m. deceased doused herself with kerosene and set herself afire due to which she suffered severe burn injuries. She was then taken to Government Hospital, Kothapeta, where noticing her condition the doctor sent a requisition to the Munsif Magistrate to make arrangements to record her dying declaration. Consequent to this request the Munsif Magistrate, PW-13 proceeded to the Government Hospital and recorded the dying declaration Ex. P-28 at about 5.30 p.m. He states that before recording he asked the opinion of the doctor PW-10 whether the patient was in a fit condition to make a declaration and on being told that she was in a fit condition, he started recording her declaration. He states that while recording the said statement, he asked the Police and others attending on the patient to leave the room and he recorded her statement in a question and answer form. A perusal of this document Ex. P-28 shows that the deceased stated that she suffered the burn injuries accidentally because of a stove burst while she was preparing tea. There is nothing in this dying declaration to indicate even remotely that she committed suicide.
(2.) Soon after this dying declaration was recorded, PW-11 who was then working as a Head Constable in Kothapeta Police Station, having received an intimation from the hospital, proceeded to the hospital and recorded another statement of the deceased marked as Ex. P-25. This statement also contains a certificate of PW-10 as to the condition of the patient to make a declaration. As per this dying declaration, the deceased stated that on being unable to bear the dowry demand and harassment meted out by her husband and in-laws, she poured kerosene on herself and set herself ablaze, consequent to which she suffered burn injuries. From the record it is seen that Aruna Kumari died at about 7.30 p.m. on the same day. During the course of investigation the prosecution examined nearly 14 witnesses out of whom P.Ws. 1 to 5 and 7 speak to the demand of dowry made by the appellants as also the harassment meted out to the deceased. Prosecution has also produced Exs. P-4 to 7 - letters written by the deceased to her parents narrating the nature of dowry demand as also the harassment. Ex. P-8 is a Memorandum drawn up by the Panchayatdars calling upon the appellants to give an undertaking to treat the deceased properly. Ex. P-9 is an undertaking given by A-1 and A-2 to look after the deceased properly. It is on the basis of the above evidence collected during the course of investigation the appellants were charged for offences as stated above in the Court of District and Sessions Judge, Rajahmundry who as per his judgment dated 30-3-1994 convicted all the accused persons for offences punishable under Sections 304-B and 498-A, IPC. The said conviction and sentence came to be confirmed by the High Court of Judicature, Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad by the impugned judgment and against which the appellants herein preferred a SLP. When the said petition came up before the Court on 26-11-1996, this Court dismissed the petition of the first appellant herein while notice confined to the petition of appellant Nos. 2 and 3 alone was issued. However, subsequently, by entertaining a review petition filed by the first appellant as per its order dated 29-9-1997, this Court granted leave in regard to the petitions of all the three appellants, hence, all the 3 appellants are now before us in this appeal.
(3.) In this appeal, Mr. P. S. Narasimha, learned counsel appearing for the appellants, submitted that both the Courts below erred in rejecting the first dying declaration Ex. P-28 on unsustainable grounds and further erred in placing reliance on the subsequent dying declaration Ex. P-25 recorded by a Police official which gave a different version. He also submitted that the Courts below erred in finding corroboration to the contents of the dying declaration Ex. P-25 from the evidence of the prosecution witnesses. He submitted that a dying declaration recorded by a Magistrate which is in conformity with the requirements of law, should always be preferred to an extra-judicial dying declaration made to a Police Officer and that too subsequent to the recording of the first dying declaration. Learned counsel pointed out if the contents of Ex. P-28, the dying declaration made to the Munsif Magistrate are unimpeachable and if the Court is satisfied, reliance can safely be placed on the contents of the said dying declaration. Any amount of evidence to the contrary could not diminish the value of such dying declaration. He submitted the fact that the deceased died of accidental burns is not only spoken to by her in unequivocal terms, the same is also supported by the entries made by the doctor, PW-10 in the information sent by him to the Police as also in the accident register Exs. P-20 and 21 which were entries and information made prior to Ex. P-28 which also shows that the deceased had suffered accidental burns. He submitted that there was a dispute between the families of the deceased and the appellants and all the witnesses who have spoken about the harassment or demand for dowry are interested persons whose evidence cannot be relied upon to discard the statement of the deceased herself as to the cause of her death.;