IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH SHIMLA. Cr. Appeal No. 248 of 1996 Date of Decision : February 25, 2010 State of H.P. …Appellant. Versus: Om Parkash & another …Respondents. Coram: The Hon’ble Mr.Justice Deepak Gupta, Judge. The Hon’ble Mr.Justice Sanjay Karol, Judge. Whether approved for reporting?1 No For the appellant: Mr. Vivek Thakur, Addl. A.G. with Mr. R. M. Bisht, Dy. A. G. For the respondents : None. Deepak Gupta, J. (Oral). This appeal by the State is directed against the judgment dated 8.6.1995 passed by the Addl. Sessions Judge, Kangra at Dharamshala, H. P., in Sessions Trial No. 23-N/VII of 1995, whereby the accused have been acquitted of the offence punishable under Sections 498-A IPC and 306 read with Section 34 of Indian Penal Code. The undisputed facts are that deceased Seema Devi was married to accused Om Parkash. Accused Krishna is the mother of accused Om Parkash. The marriage took place about 5 1 Whether reporters of Local Papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2 years before the incident. Accused Om Parkash was working at Ludhiana in a private concern. His mother Krishna was living in village Bharmar. Out of this wedlock, two children were born. Deceased Seema Devi sometimes lived with her husband at Ludhiana and at times lived with her mother-in-law at village Bharmar. It is also not disputed that on 21.1.1995, PW-4 Ravinder Kumar brother of the deceased Seema Devi visited her at village Bharmar. He stayed there for 3-4 hours and had tea there. According to him, he requested accused Om Parkash and Krishna to permit his sister, deceased Seema Devi, to come to her parental home for a few days. They both put him off but finally his sister deceased Seema Devi told him that her husband and mother-in-law are not interested in sending her so she would come after 5-6 days. Later in the evening, the deceased committed suicide. Her parents were informed. They went to the village. They found certain injuries on her neck and therefore suspected it to be a case of murder and reported the matter to the police. On the basis of this report, FIR No.22/95 was lodged at Police Station Jawali. The body of Seema Devi was sent for post mortem which was conducted by Dr. B. D. Sharma PW-1, who opined that the deceased had died of asphyxia due to hanging. The accused were charged for having committed an offence of cruelty punishable under Section 498-A IPC and also charged for having abetted the deceased to commit suicide. 3 They have been acquitted by the learned trial Court and hence the present appeal. PW-2 Ishwar Dass is the father of the deceased. He stated that accused Krishna has to harass his daughter and accused Om Parkash used to give beatings to his daughter. On 21.1.1995 his son Devender went to bring Seema Devi home but on return he informed his parents that the accused persons had not permitted her to come with him. He further states that when he saw the dead body on the next day in the house of the accused, he found some injury mark on her neck because of the use of some hot iron weapon which according to him was not of rope and therefore, reported the matter to the police. He admits that he has not given any specific instance of harassment of his daughter to the police. It has come in cross-examination that the daughter was only doing normal household work and was not required to do any other work. He also admits that there was no ceremony or special function at his house for which the daughter was invited. On a suggestion being put to him he stated that he was always free to meet his daughter any time and in fact used to meet her whenever he had some work in her village. He admitted that no complaint regarding any harassment or cruelty to which his daughter was being subjected was ever made to any authority, person or panchayat. To the similar extent is the statement of Bimla Devi PW-3. She states that whenever her daughter used to come to 4 her parental house, she used to tell her (mother) that she had been harassed by the accused persons and also given beatings. This portion of the statement cannot be believed due to the fact that the marriage was 5 years old and if the daughter had been harassed for 5 years then the parents would have brought this fact to the notice of some member of the ‘Biradiri’, even if, not to the police. It is true that the parents in Indian conditions do not straight away complain to the police but in a case of continued harassment some complaint would be made to the person who arranged the wedding or the common relatives or other members of the ‘Biradiri’ of the area. No such evidence has been brought on record in the present case. In fact the statement made by her in Court is an improvement and therefore has to be discarded since in her statement under Section 161 Cr.PC, she had not stated anything about the deceased being beaten up by the accused. It is clear that this version given in Court is untrustworthy. PW-4 the brother of the deceased does not even mention anything about his sister having been beaten up by the accused. In fact accused Om Parkash had arranged for a job for this witness at Ludhiana and all of them used to reside together at Ludhiana. He would even be the best person to depose about the relationship between his sister and brother-in-law. All that he says is that his sister was not being treated well by the accused. 5 This statement is totally vague and no reliance can be placed on the same. No specific instance of cruelty has been proved during the course of evidence. The learned trial Court was absolutely justified in holding that neither any cruelty has been proved nor it has been proved that the accused abetted the deceased to commit suicide. Therefore, we find no merit in the present appeal which is accordingly dismissed. The bail bonds if furnished are discharged. ( Deepak Gupta ) Judge. ( Sanjay Karol ), Judge. February 25, 2010. (rana)