DINESH KUMAR SINGH,J. - (1.) The present appeal arises out of the impugned judgment and order dated 02.06.2013 passed by the Additional District and Sessions Judge (FTC V), Court No. 14, Sultanpur in Sessions Trial No. 270/2000 under Sections 498-A and 304-B of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter '' IPC ') read with Section3-4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 (hereinafter ''DP Act').
(2.) The factual matrix out of which the present appeal has arisen are laid down as follows. On 21st March, 2000, the complainant, PW1, Mohd. Shabbir, submitted a written complaint (Exhibit Ka-1) at P.S. Gosainganj, Distt. Sultanpur. The contents of the complaint are laid down as follows: (a) The complainant had had gotten his niece, Kaisar Bano (hereinafter ''The Deceased') married to the accused appellant, Bechu, one and half years ago. However, after the elapse of a certain period of time, the deceased started getting subjected to torture with the intention of extorting dowry items such as a cycle, watch and other material objects from her and her family by the accused appellant's family. The deceased informed her family of the same during one of her visits to her maternal home. The deceased's family, in order to amicably settle the difference, gifted the accused appellant a watch and further undertook to gift him a cycle in the near future. However, since the complainant's elder brother and father of the deceased, Mohd. Jalil did not reside with the family and used to reside in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh due to employment related reasons, he could not furnish the dowry items to the accused appellant's family within the promised period. (b) The complainant alleges that the accused appellant along with his family, aggrieved upon the non-receipt of the dowry items as promised, set the deceased on fire at 4:00 P.M. on 16th March, 2000. Subsequent to this, the accused appellant along with his family brought the deceased in a badly injured condition to the hospital without informing anyone, including the deceased's family. The deceased is believed to have passed away on the same day. Therefore, the complainant had reasons to believe that the deceased was murdered by the accused appellant along with his family by setting her ablaze.
(3.) On the basis of the aforementioned complaint, FIR lodged at Case Crime No. 101/2000 under Sections 304-B , 498-A , IPC read with Section 3-4 of the DP Act (Exhibit Ka-3) was registered at the police station.;