- (1.) THIS is a criminal appeal against the judgment and order dated 24-10-2002, passed by the then Sessions Judge, Bageshwar in S. T. No. 36/2001, whereby both the appellants were con victed and sentenced to undergo R. I. for a period of seven years under Section 304-B I. P. C. Both the appellants were also convicted under Section 498-A IPC, but no separate sentence was passed for the offence punishable under section 498-A I. P. C.
(2.) BRIEF facts of the prosecution case are that a report was lodged on 27-08-2001 at police station Baijnath by Gopal Ram, father of the deceased al leging therein that the marriage of his daughter - Smt. Prema Devi was solem nized with Dayal Ram (appellant) in the month of December of 1977 according to Hindu rites and customs. After the marriage, her husband Dayal Ram and father-in-law Lachhi Ram used to as sault her in connection with the dowry demand. They assaulted her in the last year also, so his daughter came to her parental house leaving two children in her in-laws house. The complaint took his daughter to her in-laws house and advised the accused not to cause cru elty on his daughter. But, his daughter was again subjected to harassment and cruelty by her husband and father-in-law, due to which she jumped into the river and committed suicide on 22-08-2001. The dead body of his daughter was found near the way in Gomti river on 24-08-2001 but no information was given to him by her in-laws. Later on, the infor mation was received by a student Rajendra Singh that Smt. Prema Devi had been missing for three days from the house of her-in-laws. On receiving the said information, Naveen Ram, brother of the deceased and Hari Ram, Village Pradhan went to the house of accused persons on 24-08- 2001 and came to know that the dead body of the deceased was found in the Gomti river. Thereafter, Naveen Ram, son of the complainant informed his fa ther who was working in Delhi. On the basis of report, a Chick FIR was prepared and necessary entries were made in the general diary. The investigation was taken up as usual which culminated into the submission of the chargesheet. After submission of chargesheet the accused were committed to the Court of Sessions for trial and the trial court framed charges against the accused per sons. The accused persons denied charges levelled against them and claimed the trial. The prosecution in order to sup port its case examined as many as nine witnesses. Gopal Ram (PW1) and Lachhima Devi (PW2) were the father and mother of deceased respectively. They have stated that the appellant used to harass the deceased on account of dowry demand. Naveen Chandra PW3 is the brother of the deceased. Lachhi Ram PW4 is the uncle of the deceased. He has corroborated the evidence of Gopal Ram PW1 and Lachhima Devi PW2. Narayan Dutt Joshi PW5 proved the factum of recovery of dead body from the Gomati river. Dr. Deepak Garbiyal PW6 is the Medical Officer, who conducted the postmortem on the dead body of the deceased. The pros ecution has also adduced the evidence of H. C. Ram Kumar (PW7) who proved the chick report Ex. Ka. 3. Pooran Chandra Upreti PW8 investigated the case initially and rest part of the inves tigation was taken by Mathura Prasad Tamta PW9 who after completing the in vestigation submitted the chargesheet against the accused persons.
(3.) IN the statement recorded u/s 313 Cr. P. C. the accused persons denied the prosecution case and stated that they have been falsely implicated in this case. They further stated that the de ceased was affected of ill spirits. She went to the river for the work and fell down accidentally in Gomati river. No defence evidence was adduced by the appellants in their defence. The learned trial court after ap praisal of the evidence on record, the appellants were convicted and sentenced as mentioned above.;