Case Facts:
Patna High Court Cr.Misc. No.28484 of 2012 (4) dt.03-12-2012 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Criminal Miscellaneous No.28484 of 2012 ====================================================== Sadanand Sahni & Babita Devi. .... .... Petitioner/s Versus The State Of Bihar .... .... Opposite Party/s CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE HEMANT KUMAR SRIVASTAVA ORAL ORDER 04/ 03.12.2012 Heard learned counsel for the petitioners as well as learned Addl. Public Prosecutor for the State. Petitioner no.1 is elder brother of husband of the deceased whereas petitioner no.2 is wife of petitioner no.1 and both the above stated petitioners are being prosecuted for the offences registered under [STATUTE] . The deceased had made her dying declaration disclosing this fact that her marriage had solemnized three years ago but she was subjected to cruelty and harassment on account of non-fulfillment of dowry demand and on the alleged date of occurrence, all her in-laws including these petitioners sprinkled kerosene oil on her and lit fire on her body. The contention on behalf of the petitioners is that petitioners are separate from the complainant’s husband and, as a matter of fact, no specific overt-act has been attributed against these petitioners. Learned Judicial Magistrate, Begusarai has reported that case of the petitioners is still pending for supply of police paper and due to non-availability of the original case diary, case of these petitioners could not be committed to the court of sessions. Patna High Court Cr.Misc. No.28484 of 2012 (4) dt.03-12-2012 Considering the facts and circumstances as well submissions of the parties, I am not inclined to release these petitioners on bail and accordingly, their prayer for bail in connection with Nayagaon P.S. Case no. 31/2010 pending in the court of Sri Gaurav Anand, Judicial Magistrate, Ist class, Begusarai is, hereby, rejected. However, the concerned Judicial Magistrate, Begusarai is directed to commit the case of the petitioners to the court of Sessions in accordance with law within four weeks from the date of receipt of this order and if the original case diary is not available in his court, he must obtain carbon copy of the case diary from the concerned police officials and commit the case of the petitioners to the court of sessions. It is made clear that the petitioners may renew their prayer for bail after framing of the charge. Shahid (Hemant Kumar Srivastava,J)

Applicable IPC Section: 304B

Statute Text:
Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code. Dowry death. Where the death of a woman is caused by any burns or bodily injury or occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry, such death shall be called "dowry death", and such husband or relative shall be deemed to have caused her death. Whoever commits dowry death shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life.