AMARESHWAR SAHAY, J. - (1.) ALL the three appellants have been convicted by VIth Additional Judicial Commissioner, Ranchi in S.T. No. 558/97, T.R.No. 40/97 vide judgment dated 6.9.1997 for committing the offence under Section 304 -B of the Indian Penal Code and they have been sentenced to undergo Rigorous Imprisonment for 10 years each for causing dowry death of Noor jahan Khatoon.
(2.) BEING aggrieved by the said judgment of conviction and sentence the appellants have preferred the present appeal. The prosecution case in brief is that Md. Hakim Khan (PW 1), son of late Jabbar Khan of village Idri, P.S. Khunti, District Ranchi recorded his fardbeyan before Mandar Police Station on 10.2.1994 at Holy Family Hospital, Mandar stating therein that his younger sister, Noorjahan Khattoon was married to Taiyab Khan (appellant No. 1) of village Choreya in April 1991. Only after six months of the marriage the husband, Taiyab Khan, Father -in -law Sattar Khan (appellant No. 2) and mother -in -law, Sabiran Khatoon (appellant No. 3) started asking Noorjahan Khatoon to bring money from her "naihar". They also threatened her that if she would not bring the money then they would kill her by not providing her food. The accused -appellants regularly tortured Noorjahan Khatoon on account of demand of dowry. On 9.2.1994 at about 10 p.m. a man came to the Garage where informant, younger brother used to work in the said Garage at Ranchi and informed him that his sister, Noorjahan Khatoon was lying unconscious in Mandar Hospital. The younger brother of the informant then came home and informed the members of the family about the said news, whereupon the informant and other members of the family members went to Mandar Holy Family Hospital in the same night and they reached there about 2 a.m. in the night, but they were not allowed to enter into the hospital at that time. In the morning about 6.15 a.m. when they went inside the hospital they learnt from a nurse that Noorjahan Khatoon died of poispning. It was alleged in the FIR that the appellants committed murder of Noorjahan Khatoon by administering position on account of non - fulfillment of demand of dowry.
(3.) THE defence version is that they are innocent and that the deceased was living separately with her husband and there was neither any demand of dowry nor she was subject to cruelty or torture.;