G PARSHWANATH Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The instant appeal questions legality of judgment dated December 17, 2004, rendered by High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore in Criminal Appeal No. 1427 of 2003 by which judgment dated September 1, 2003 delivered by the learned Principal Sessions Judge, Bellary in S.C. No. 91/93 convicting the appellant under Sections 302 and 201 IPC and sentencing him to undergo RI for life and fine of Rs. 5,000/- in default RI for six months for commission of offence punishable under Section 302 IPC as well as RI for one year and fine of Rs. 2,000/- in default RI for two months for commission of offence punishable under Section 201 IPC, is confirmed.

(2.) The facts emerging from the record of the case are as under: Deceased Chethana was daughter of Jwalnaiah and Smt. Radhamma. The parents of the deceased were residents of Bangalore. Marriage of deceased Chethana took place with the appellant in the year 1987. After marriage the deceased started residing at Bellary because the appellant and his family were residents of Bellary. In the year 1988 the deceased gave birth to a male child, who was named Mahaveer. Initially the relations between the appellant and the deceased were cordial, but, after sometime bickering started taking place between the two of them. As the days passed by, this bickering grew into discordiality resulting in the harassment and cruelty to the deceased by the appellant. The deceased used to complain about harassment and cruelty meted out to her, to her father, mother and sister when she had occasion to meet them. The deceased Chethana had mentioned before her sister Ranjana Jain that the appellant was treating her cruelly and was harassing her because he was having a doubt that the male child was not born through him and that the appellant was having illicit relationship with one girl named Asha of Bangalore. The harassment meted out to the deceased reached such a peak that one day the deceased had to call her parents to Bellary and the parents had to take help of police to take back the deceased to their house at Bangalore. Obviously, the appellant was annoyed and, therefore, the appellant filed a petition for divorce. During the time when the deceased was staying with her parents at Bangalore and when the divorce petition was pending, efforts were made to settle the disputes between husband and wife amicably. The result of those efforts was that the appellant had withdrawn the divorce petition whereas the deceased had started living with the appellant at Bellary. On the surface, the differences appeared to have cooled down for some time but nevertheless ill treatment of the deceased by the appellant and ill feelings between the appellant and his family on one hand and the deceased on the other continued.

(3.) After the case was committed to the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Bellary for trial, necessary charges were framed against the appellant, his mother and his sister. The charges were read over and explained to them. They pleaded not guilty to the same and claimed to be tried. Therefore, the prosecution examined 32 witnesses and produced certain documents in support of their case against the three accused. After recording of evidence of prosecution witnesses was over, the learned Judge explained to the three accused the circumstances appearing against them in the evidence of the prosecution witnesses and recorded their further statements as required by Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The appellant filed a detailed written statement inter alia mentioning that his father-in-law, who was a former MLA and influential person, had falsely implicated him and his family. It was stated by the appellant that his father-in-law had neither regular income nor properties except one house, which was given by him on rent to tenants, who were paying meager rent of Rs. 1,500/- per month and thus he was totally dependant upon the income of his daughter - deceased Chethana - who was working as computer engineer at Bangalore before her marriage and supporting the family. What was claimed by the appellant was that because of financial crunch from which his father-in-law was suffering, his father-in- law was insisting the appellant to come and stay at Bangalore with him as a "Ghar-Jamai", which was opposed by the appellant and since then his father- in-law was nurturing a grudge against him. According to the appellant, he was a man of an independent nature and had more responsibilities towards his family. According to him, he had the responsibility of running the school established by his family and, in such circumstances, he had refused to accept the offer of his father-in-law and decided to stay at Bellary only. It was mentioned by the appellant that feeling let down, his father-in-law had started pressurizing the deceased to desert the appellant and come back and stay with him at Bangalore and to continue her computer career. The appellant had claimed in his written statement that after the first Deepawali the deceased was forcibly taken from Bellary to Bangalore by his father-in-law with the help of police. It was further stated that when the deceased was pregnant and had delivered the first child, the appellant had requested his father-in-law and mother-in-law to send the deceased to Bellary to enable him and his family to perform some religious ceremonies, but his father-in-law had refused to send the deceased and when he had gone to bring his wife to Bellary, an attempt was made by his father-in-law to assault him through his son. It was also mentioned in the written statement that after the delivery of child Mahaveer, the deceased with the child had come back to Bellary and was living happily with him, but, again her parents had taken away her with the child forcibly and that is why he had to file a divorce petition on the ground of desertion by his wife with a fond hope that his wife and child would be sent back. According to him, he was never serious about the divorce and that is why he had not taken any further steps to pursue the petition and that is why the divorce petition was dismissed for non- prosecution. What was stated by the appellant was that when the divorce proceedings were pending, his wife, i.e., the deceased used to write love letters to him and no complaints were made in those letters about the so-called harassment and cruelty by him to her. It was asserted that due to decline in the income of his father-in-law, the parents of the deceased were pestering the deceased to stay with them whereas the deceased was inclined to stay with the appellant and, therefore, out of frustration the deceased with minor son Mahaveer committed suicide. The explanation offered in his written statement further proceeded to state that on May 13, 1993, he was at home till 1.00 P.M. and as it was a summer holiday for the schools run by him and the deceased was insisting to get the refrigerator back from the repair shop, he had gone to the shop of Sattar Hussein at whose shop the refrigerator was sent for repairs and informed Sattar Hussein that the refrigerator should be sent to his home immediately. It was mentioned by him that thereafter he had proceeded to his school where someone had informed about the fire having taken place in his house and, therefore, he had rushed back on his motorcycle and found that his wife and son were dead. According to him, the PSI had arrested him, taken his signatures on blank paper and after deliberations with his father-in-law, concocted the present case falsely not only against him but also against his mother and sister, who were totally innocent and this was done only with a view to harassing him and seeking vengeance. In his written statement the appellant had made attempt to point out certain discrepancies appearing in the investigation and had ultimately prayed to acquit him of all the charges.