She was married to A-2, Anup Singh on July 6, 1992 inaccordance with the Hindu rites and rituals.After few days ofher marriage, when Renu Bala visited the house of herparents, she complained as to how accused persons weretreating her with cruelty by putting demands for refrigeratorand scooter as dowry.It was alleged that on January 5, 1993,Kamla Devi, mother of Renu Bala came to know from TilakRaj, her brother-in-law that Renu Bala was admitted in a 2 hospital at Gagret.The policewent to the spot, prepared inquest report and rough spot mapof the place where dead body of Renu Bala was found.TheInvestigating officer also took into possession vomit of RenuBala and the clothes worn by her at the time of vomiting priorto her death.Dr. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J.In this appeal challenge is to the judgment of a learnedSingle Judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court holdingeach of the appellants guilty of offence punishable under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the`IPC') while setting aside the conviction and the sentenceimposed in respect of Section 306 IPC.Background facts in a nutshell are as follows:The appellants-accused were tried for offencespunishable under Sections 498A, 304B and 306 IPC.AccusedNo.1 Balwant Singh was father-in-law, accused No.4-KantaDevi was mother-in-law, accused No.3-Ravinder Singh wasbrother-in-law and accused No.2-Anup Singh was husband ofRenu Bala (hereinafter referred to as the `deceased').Thedeceased was daughter of one Gurdayal Singh and KamlaDevi.She, therefore, along with Tilak Raj went tothe hospital, but Renu Bala was not there, and they came toknow that Renu Bala was taken to Patohar Kalan, the villagewhere the accused were staying.Both of them then went tothe residence of the accused and found Renu Bala lying deadin verandah of the house of the accused and none of theaccused was there.Kamla Devi suspected foul play that herdaughter Renu Bala was either killed or was compelled tocommit suicide by consuming poison on account of theirunlawful demand of dowry by the accused and by treating herwith cruelty.She, therefore, lodged a report with the policeEx.PW-3/A under Section 154 of the Code of CriminalProcedure, 1973 (in short the `Code') at Police Station, Una,which was registered as formal F.I.R. vide Ex.Two letters, which were produced by Devinder 3 Singh, were also taken in possession.Postmortem wasconducted by Dr. Vijay Kumar Raizda, which revealed thatRenu Bala was having pregnancy of fourteen to sixteen weeks.He reserved his opinion regarding cause of death till receipt ofreport of Chemical Analyser.After receiving the report, Dr.Gurcharan Singh opined that cause of death was peripheralcirculatory failure due to aluminum phosphide which wassufficient cause of death in natural course of events.Furtherinvestigation was conducted by ASI, Jarnail Singh, whoobtained two letters produced by Gurdyal Singh, father ofdeceased Renu Bala.After hearing the learned Public Prosecutor for the Stateas well as learned defence counsel, a charge was framedagainst the accused for the offences punishable underSections 498-A, 304-B and 306 of the IPC and they wereasked as to whether they plead guilty.4 The accused did not plead guilty to the charge andclaimed to be tried.In order to prove its case the prosecution examined 16witnesses.After the prosecution evidence was closedstatements of the accused persons were recorded in terms ofthe Section 313 of the Code.Six witnesses were examined toestablish their innocence.From the suggestions put duringcross examination the accused persons tried to make out acase that deceased was suffering from epilepsy and frustratedby her life she committed suicide.The trial court as notedabove held the accused persons guilty of offences punishableunder Section 498A and 306 IPC while directing acquittal ofthe charge in terms of Section 304-B IPC.In appeal afterreferring to the evidence High Court came to hold that theoffence under Section 306 is not made out.The letters Exh.PW-5/A 5 and PW-5/C show that there was no demand of dowry butthere was improper treatment.The appeal is disposed of accordingly.

Relevant sections: Section 498A in The Indian Penal Code; Section 306 in The Indian Penal Code; Section 304B in The Indian Penal Code; Section 173 in The Indian Penal Code; Section 313 in The Indian Penal Code