- (1.) This appeal arises out of the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 29.3.2003 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court-V, Dhanbad in Sessions Trial No. 283 of 1999, whereby the appellant No. 10, namely, Mallik Prasad Soni has been found guilty for committing offence under Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code and has been sentenced to undergo R.I. for the said offence for a period of 10 years, whereas rests of 9 appellants, namely, Devanand Prasad Soni @ Devanand Soni, Sewa Prasad Soni, Bhuneshwar Prasad, Dilip Kumar Soni, Basanti Devi, Chandrika Devi, Mala Devi, Madhuri Devi and, Raju Prasad Soni have been found guilty only under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code and they have been sentenced to undergo R.I. for a period of 2 years.
(2.) In short, the prosecution case as per the first information report registered on the basis of fardbeyan of the informant Madhusudan Verma (P.W.5) is that his niece Deepa Devi was married with the appellant No. 10, namely, Mallik Prasad Soni in the year 1993 according to the Hindu Rites and Customs. In the marriage he gave dowry according to his capacity. His niece was kept well in her Sasural for one year, but thereafter members of her in-laws including father in law Bhuneshwar Prasad Soni, mother in law, brother in law (Bhaisur) and other relatives started Ill-treating and torturing her by beating and they also stopped giving food and clothes and she was compelled to bring Rs. 50,000/- from her Naihar, otherwise she was threatened to be killed. She was telling them that her father has no so much of money, on this they used to assault her, for which she had been sending information to her parents place from time to time. Whenever the Naihar people of the deceased used to complain about this act, they used to give reply that they should pay a sum of Rs. 50,000/- to their son i.e. appellant No. 10, so that he may start his shop. At one time she had been sent back to her Naihar place after assault and they were not prepared to take her back. After some persuation she had been taken back and, thereafter, it is alleged that about 3 1/2 years prior to the date of occurrence a daughter was born to the deceased. She was sent back to her Naihar and they had told the parents of the deceased that she will be taken back only on payment of of Rs. 50,000/-. Although the informant and his family members did not want to send her back to her in laws place but appellant No. 10 took her back to his place. On information about the birth of the second daughter the informant and his family members went to meet the deceased but she was not allowed to meet. The elder daughter of the deceased was also telling them that her mother was being assaulted by the accused persons. On 18.10.1998 the informant got information from his nephew Pawan Kumar that the deceased has been burnt by her in laws at their place and that she was admitted in the hospital. On receipt of such information the informant along with his relatives went to the hospital and found the deceased dead with burn injuries on her person. Thereafter the statement was recorded by the police and on the basis of the fardbeyan a case under Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code was registered against all the appellants and on completion of investigation, charge sheet was submitted against them for the offence under Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code and accordingly, charges were framed against all of them for the offence under Section 304B of the Indian penal Code.
(3.) In order to establish the charges altogether 14 witnesses were examined on behalf of the prosecution; out of whom P.W.1 is Ramesh Kumar Verma, P.W.2 is Basuki Prasad Verma, P.W.3 is Gokhul Prasad Verma, P.W.4 is Md. Taiyab Mian, P.W.5 is Madhusudan Verma (informant of the case), P.W.6 is Dr. Binod Kumar, whe has conducted postmortem report on the dead body of the deceased, P.W.7 is Shankar Bouri, P.W.8 is Dushyanta Prasad Sinha, P.W.9 is Dharmaraj Ram, P.W. 10 is Rajendra Prasad Singh, S.I., P.W.11 is Mina Devi, P.W.12 Sukh Narayan Verma, P.W.13 is Amit Kumar Verma whereas P.W. 14 is Krishna Ram, Investigating Officer of the case.;