- (1.) Appellants have laid challenge to the judgment of conviction and order on sentence dated 14.10.2003 vide which they were held guilty under Section 304-B IPC. They were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years. The facts as culled out from the records may be noticed first. Gubax Kaur @ Baksho (since deceased) was married to appellant Surinder Pal somewhere in 1996. She gave birth to a daughter. On the night intervening 10/11.06.1999 she was found dead in her matrimonial home. Her brother, Harmesh Lal made statement (Ex.PB) to the police wherein he disclosed that Gurbax Kaur was the youngest sister. After the marriage, she was ill-treated by her husband and mother-in-law Gian Kaur and she was left at her parental house after a beating. On the intervention of the Panchayat she was sent back to her matrimonial home. She was kept nicely for sometime. About one year prior to the occurrence, her father had died. Surinder Pal came to the house of complainant and demanded the share of Gurbax Kaur in the property left by her father. The complainant along with his brother Tarsem and Sarpanch Dilbagh went to the matrimonial home of his sister, where Gurbax Kaur told them that her husband and parents-in-law Kewal Ram and Gian Kaur had beaten her and she had sustained fracture on her wrist. The accused also misbehaved with Harmesh Lal and the complainant brought Gurbax Kaur to her parental home. This time also, with the intervention of Panchayat, the girl was sent back to her matrimonial home about one and a half month prior to the occurrence. It was further mentioned that about a week prior to her death, the complainant along with his brother had gone to the house of Gurbax Kaur to ask for her well being and in their presence Surinder Pal picked a quarrel with Gurbax Kaur and repeated their demand. The complainant tried to persuade Surinder Pal.
(2.) The complainant received the information that Surinder Pal, Kewal Ram and Gian Kaur had administered poison to Gurbax Kaur. They reached there and noticed the dead body lying the courtyard. Harmesh Lal made a statement, on the basis of which FIR No.60 dated 11.06.1999 was registered and investigated. Inquest was carried out. Autopsy was conducted. No poison was detected, whereas injury No.3 on the neck was held to be the cause of death. Accused Gian Kaur and Surinder Pal were arrested, whereas accused Kewal Ram absconded. Challan was presented against them. Charge under Section 304-B IPC was framed against them. Initially, the prosecution examined Dr. Baldev Singh as PW1 who had conducted the autopsy on the dead body of Gurbax Kaur; complainant Harmesh Lal as PW2; Simru son of Munshi, the uncle of Gurbax Kaur; Const. Ram Kishan as PW4 in whose presence belongings of Gurbax Kaur were taken into possession; PW5 Baldev Saini had prepared the scaled site plan of the spot.
(3.) The remaining witnesses were PW6 Dilbagh Singh, Sarpanch; PW7 Inspector Parveen Kumar, the investigating officer and PW8 Const. Mukhtiar Singh who had deposited the sealed envelope with the chemical examiner. After the arrest of Kewal Ram, supplementary challan was filed against him. Charge was re-framed and all the aforesaid witnesses were again examined.;