- (1.) Heard Sri P.S. Pandey learned counsel for the appellant and Sri Ajit Ray learned AGA for the State. The two appellants before us Lallu Singh and Smt Heera Devi are the husband and mother-in-law of the deceased Smt Seema who were charged with the offences under Section 498-A read with Section 304-B IPC and in the alternative under Section 302 IPC read with Section 34 thereof for having committed the murder of the deceased by burning her to death after pouring kerosene oil on the 10th of July, 2012 at about 7:00 am.
(2.) The trial court did not find the appellants to be guilty of the offences under Section 498-A read with Section 304-B but has convicted the appellants for having committed the offence under Section 302 IPC read with Section 34 IPC and have sentenced them to life imprisonment together with Rs.5,000/- fine each and in default thereof to undergo one month rigorous imprisonment vide impugned judgment dated 30th September, 2014.
(3.) The story as unfolded in the FIR is that the appellant Lallu Singh was married to the deceased in the year 1995 and five children were born from the wedlock. The FIR further narrates that since the in-laws of the deceased including the appellants harassed the deceased and demanded dowry. The deceased was also assaulted, as a result whereof, she was compelled to lodge a case against them. However on account of the influence exercised by her in-laws she later on withdrew the case. On 10th July, 2012 at about 7:00 am in the morning the deceased was assaulted by the accused and after sprinkling kerosene oil over her, she was burnt, the information whereof was received by the informant Member Singh, father of the deceased and examined as PW-1, through his brother Ravindra Singh who is a salesman in a liquor shop and has been examined as PW-3. It is also narrated in the FIR that when the informant's brother went to see his niece, the appellants tried to assault him as a result whereof he ran away, and immediately informed his brother the informant about the incident. The informant thereafter along with his relatives arrived and came to know about the incident. On their arrival, the appellant and his family members had all fled away, and accordingly, the informant along with the aid of other family members rushed the deceased to the District Hospital, at Orai in a Marshal vehicle. After having admitted her, the informant reached the police station namely, Kotwali at Kalpi, District Jalaun and gave the information to the police that his daughter was lying in a dying state in the Hospital, but when she was conscious she had disclosed the incident to him and to his family members. The informant further alleged that the in-laws of the deceased were greedy and it is for this reason that they have caused the injuries to the deceased who is lying in a dying state.;