A.N.JINDAL, J. - (1.) Assailed in this appeal is the judgment dated 4.6.1996 passed by Sessions Judge, Amritsar, whereby, all the three accused-appellants, namely; Kulbir Singh, Joginder Kaur and Jaswinder Kaur (herein referred as the 'accused') were convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six years and to pay fine of Rs. 2000/-, each.
(2.) THE deceased Baljit Kaur, daughter of Chand Singh r/o village Bhura Karimpura, District Amritsar (herein referred as the 'complainant') was married to accused Kulbir Singh, a resident of village Duhan Kohna on 22.6.1988. Accused Joginder Kaur was the mother-in-law of the deceased, whereas, Jaswinder Kaur is her widowed sister-in-law (Nanad). Out of the wedlock, three children were born. Despite the sufficient dowry given to the accused at the time of marriage, they were not still satisfied and raised demand of a Maruti Van, which the complainant could not arrange due to the disturbed law and order situation in the State of Punjab. He could not attend the agriculture in proper manner and, therefore, his income had come down. The accused were not behaving properly with the deceased. She was being maltreated, beaten and tortured on account of demand of dowry. However, the complainant always consoled his daughter and asked her to bear with the situation and also promised that he would meet their demands. About 1-1/2 months prior to the occurrence, having been turned out by the accused, the deceased had come to her parental house along with her three children. Then, Raj Singh, uncle of Kulbir Singh visited the house of the complainant and promised that they will not repeat the same behaviour with the deceased and took her and the children with him to his house. About 15 days, thereafter, the complainant again visited the house of the accused to know about the well-being of his daughter Baljit Kaur, where, all the accused persisted on their demand of a Maruti Van and threatened of the dire consequences, if their demand is not fulfilled. On 14.8.1993 at about 6.00 p.m, the complainant was informed by Gurbachan Singh of his village that he had seen the accused beating Baljit Kaur at about 4.00 p.m. He further stated that the accused did not permit her to came to the parental house. On getting this information, the complainant along with his brother Nand Singh reached the house of the accused at village Duhan Kohna and came to know at the out-skirts that the accused had gone on a tractor-trolley towards village Algon Kothi. Then the complainant and his brother went in that direction and while reaching the clinic of a private doctor, they noticed that Baljit Kaur was lying unconscious in the trolley. Then the complainant arranged a Van and took her to the clinic of Dr. Muni Lal Chopra at Amritsar. However, Baljit Kaur died within 1-1/2 hours. On receipt of the information, the case was registered; police went to the Hospital; prepared the Inquest Report; arranged for the post mortem examination; recorded the statements of the witnesses and the accused were apprehended. On completion of the investigation, challan was presented against all the three accused.
(3.) ON commitment, all the three accused were charged under Section 304-B of the Indian Penal Code, to which they pleaded not guilty and opted to contest.;