- (1.) In Sessions Case No. 29 of 2009 corresponding to Session Trial No. 12 of 2009 the appellants-accused were tried on a charge for having committed offences punishable under Section 498A of the IPC and the appellant-accused Uday Malik was tried for an offence punishable under Section 302 of the IPC.
(2.) The appellant-accused Sandhya Malik is the mother of appellant-accused Uday Malik they were charged for having subjected the deceased Kalpana Malik, wife of Uday Malik, to cruelty by wilful conduct by physical and mental torture upon her and thereby committed offence under Section 498A of lPC, and the appellants-accused Uday Malik was also charged for having murdered his wife Kalpana and thereby committed offence under Section 302, IPC respectively. Sandhya Malik was convicted and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for 3 years with a fine of Rs. 3,000/-, in default, to suffer imprisonment for a further period of six months for offence under Section 498A, IPC, and Uday Malik was convicted and sentenced for having committed offence punishable under Section 498A as well as 302 of IPC and was sentenced to death. As the appellant-accused has been sentenced to death, no separate sentence was imposed for having committed offence punishable under Section 498A of IPC, The learned trial Court has referred, the case for confirmation of death sentence as required under Section 366 of the Cr. P.C. The conviction and sentence have been challenged by the appellants-accused by these two separate appeals which are being disposed of by common judgment and order. In nutshell, it is a case of the prosecution that the deceased Kalpana Malik was married to appellant-accused Uday Malik of village Shyamsundar under Police Station Raina and went to reside in her matrimonial house at Shyamsundar. Out of their marriage, she gave birth to three daughters, the second daughter died in the early stage after birth. It is after the birth of the third daughter that the appellant- accused Sandhya Malik and Uday Malik started treating Kalpana with cruelty for the reason that she had failed to give birth to a male child. The deceased Kalpana was tortured and assaulted and at times was deprived of meals. It so happened that on the previous night of the day of incident the appellant-accused Uday Malik quarreled with the deceased Kalpana over serving of dinner to his mother Sandhya Malik which culminated into the incident of murder. On the following morning the appellant-accused Uday Malik not only assaulted his wife Kalpana but also dragged her inside a room and poured kerosene over her and set her ablaze in the presence of their daughter Kumari Nisha Malik due to which she died. The incident attracted neighbours in the village. The police were informed in the matter. The police reached the place of occurrence and found the dead body of Kalpana Malik lying in the house. Therefore, they prepared the inquest report of the dead body of deceased Kalpana Malik and seized materials from the place of occurrence. The dead body of Kalpana Malik was sent for postmortem examination. The police recorded the statement of witnesses and on conclusion of investigation filed charge sheet against the appellants- accused. In course of investigation, the police also received a representation signed by 286 villagers to make sure that the guilty be given exemplary punishment. The appellants-accused pleaded not guilty and claimed to be innocent.
(3.) During trial the prosecution examined in all 23 witnesses out of which the maternal uncle of the deceased. and most of the witnesses who were neighbours and villagers of village Shyamsundar turned hostile and some were mainly offered for cross-examination. On conclusion of the trial, the learned Additional Sessions Judge of the First Track Court found the appellants-accused guilty and proceeded to pass the impugned sentences.;