1 HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA Cr. Appeal No. 653 of 2002 Decided on: August 8, 2011 State of H.P. …Appellant. VERSUS Kali Dass ….Respondent. Coram The Hon’ble Mr. Justice R.B.Misra, Judge. The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Dev Darshan Sud, Judge Whether approved for reporting?1 For the Appellant: Mr.R.K. Sharma, Sr. Adld. AG with Mr. Rajinder Dogra, Addl. AG. For the respondents: Mr. Virender Singh Rathore, Advocate. Dev Darshan Sud, Judge: State has preferred this appeal against the judgment of the learned Additional Sessions Judge-1, Kangra at Dharamshala acquitting the accused for an offence under section 306 of Indian Penal Code. The prosecution case, in brief, is that accused/respondent Kali Dass was married to Shanti Devi-deceased 18/19 years ago. On 4.6.1999, she committed suicide because of the maltreatment meted out by the respondent, Whether the reporters of the local papers maybe allowed to see the judgment? 2 which left her with no option but to take the extreme step to end her life. The respondent-accused had three children, two sons and one daughter. The elder son was studying in 10+2. The respondent was earning his livelihood by working as carpenter/Mason and was living separately from his family. The prosecution case is that for about 10-11 years, the accused treated the deceased properly. Whereafter he started maltreating her. He used to turn her out of the house, where more often then once she had to take shelter in a parental house. She used to complain to her parents and brothers about the cruel maltreatment meted out to her. Whenever the accused used to visit his in-laws, to bring her back, he used to apologize for his conduct and assure her parents he would mend his ways. 2. The parents of the deceased had convened a Panchayat when the deceased had stayed in the house of Ranjit singh PW-4, brother in law of the deceased. At that time, they had noticed injuries on her body. On 4.6.99 at around 5 PM, brother of the deceased came to know about the death of his sister and they along with Pradhan Sher Singh immediately rushed to the house of the deceased, where they saw 3 her lying in a room. They also noticed a rope in the cow- shed, hanging from one of the bamboo beams, with which the deceased is alleged to have hanged herself. The matter was reported to the police and investigation commenced. The postmortem report Ext PW-1/C was proved on record by PW-1 Dr. D.R. Riyal, who opined that the cause of death was shocked due to cardio- respiratory failure, asphyxia, due to ante mortem hanging. 3. PW-2 Jaishi Ram, brother of the deceased made a statement under Section 154 of Cr P.C in which he stated that they are five brothers and sister. The deceased was married to the respondent about 19 years ago and from this marriage, they had two sons and one daughter. For the last 7-8 years, the respondent was tormenting and maltreating the deceased after he consumed liquor and was not providing any money to her to meet her basic needs. Whenever, the deceased asked the accused for money for sustenance, he used to tell her that she is free to go to her parents house from where she can take money. In these circumstances, he and his brothers used to prove ration etc. to the deceased. He also states that 4 respondent used to beat her up and turn her out of the house. On 4.6.99 he had received information that she was dead where upon, he rushed to the place of occurrence. Prosecution examined 12 witnesses to prove its case. 4. PW-2 Jaishi Ram stated that he along with his parents used to supply ration etc to the deceased and once a local Panchayat was also convened to sort out the matter. 3/4 months prior to her death, the deceased had come to their house from the house of his brother in law (PW-4) Ranjit Singh, who had sent a message to his brother Pritam to take her away. The deceased was then brought to their house when they noticed marks of beating on her body. When he enquired how she sustained these injuries, she informed him that she had been beaten up by the accused. He says that all the five brothers along with one other person tried to settle the matter when the accused assured that he would mend his ways in future. He states in examination-in-chief that the accused work as a carpenter, used to stay away from his house in connection with his work and used to visit his house once in a week. He says that he did not notice any mark of 5 injury on the body of his sister, except ligature marks on her neck. 5. PW-3 Chuni Lal, brother of the deceased states that after 3-4 months of the marriage, accused used to give beatings to the deceased when he was drunk. Accused did not provide her necessities of life. Whenever she used to visit them, she used to complain about the beatings and deprivation of the basic necessities of life and in this eventuality, they used to provide her rations etc. This continued for about 12 years. Whenever they advised the accused to improve his behavior, he promised to mend his ways, but would return to his old ways. He corroborates the incident having seen the injuries on the body of the deceased when she visited them and stated that she was assaulted with a stick by the respondent after he had consumed liquor. 6. PW-4 Ranjit Singh, brother-in-law of Shanti Devi deceased states about the fact that he had intervened on one occasion asking the respondent not to maltreat the deceased. PW-5 Ashok Kumar is son of the deceased who states that on 4.6.99, during day time, he along with his mother, father, brother and sister were 6 working and were laying foundation for a bath room. They finished the work at about 4.00 PM, thereafter, PW- 5 Ashok Kumar along with his father, brother, sister and one other person started watching television. Deceased went to the kitchen to prepare vegetables etc. Thereafter, deceased had complained of pain in her stomach and she had gone to rest in the other room. After some time, he came out of the room and noticed her mother was not there. He thought that she might have gone to the field for work. He made a search for her and in this process, when he was passing through the cow-shed, he found its door afar. He went inside the cow-shed and found his mother hanging from a rope which she had tied with a bamboo beam of the roof. He raised a hue and cry, upon which his father and sister rushed to the cow-shed. He and his father lifted the body of his mother. In the meantime, his uncle Ramesh Chand also came there with ‘Darat’ (sickle) and cut the rope with it. His sister tried to give her water, but she was dead. He states that the relation of his mother with his father were cordial. He was declared hostile, cross examined at length by the prosecution, but nothing material has been elicited from him. 7 7. PW-6 Sukh Ram states that in 199 he was Pradhan of Gram panchayat, Madoli. He knows both Shanti Devi and the accused. About one year prior to the death of Shanti Devi, she met him on the way when she was going to her parents house and complained that her husband used to maltreat her and that he should intervene in the matter. He assured her that he would talk to Kali Dass accused. In his cross examination, he admits that he had not received any complaint in writing, during the time when he was Pradhan, nobody in the village complained against the accused, who was having agricultural holdings also. When deceased Shanti Devi was alive, the accused was maintaining the entire family. 8. PW-8 Man Singh says that he is running a clinic at Durana. On 4.6.99, brother of Kali Dass had come to his clinic and told him that deceased had been injured by an ox. He visited the house of the accused and found Shanti Devi was dead. In his cross examination he was confronted with the statement mark ‘Z’, wherein it is not so recorded. The other witnesses on record are police witnesses. 8 9. It is in these circumstances that this court has been called upon to judge the legality of the acquittal of the respondent. The learned trial court notes some contradictions in the statement of PW-2 Jaishi Ram. He states nothing about the fact about Shanti Devi staying for a month in her parental house prior to her death and that she was having injuries on her body. There is no word in Ext PW-2/A about convening some Panchayat which he says was held in his examination-in-chief. The court also notes that the statement of PW-3 Chuni Lal before the police is also at variance with what he states in the court that after 3-4 years, accused started beating the deceased. In the statement under section 161, he says that the accused had been maltreating her for about 12 years, but this does not find mention in Ext DA which is his statement under section 161 Cr.P.C. There is no evidence on record to the effect that the accused was addicted to liquor or that after getting drunk, he used to beat up his wife as alleged. The court notes that the accused had been married to the deceased for a period of over 18-19 years and had three grown up children and there is not one whisper from anyone of them that they maltreated the 9 deceased. PW-5 Ashok Kumar, son of the respondent, is categoric that no maltreatment was meted out to the deceased. We cannot reject his testimony solely on the ground that he has been hostile as we find in his cross examination that nothing material has been elicited which would discredit his testimony. There is nothing to suggest that he is partisan or he has suppressed the truth. 10. In these circumstances, we hold that the prosecution has been able to establish its case. There is no merit in this appeal which is accordingly dismissed. 11. The bail bonds, furnished are discharged. ( R.B.Misra ), J. 8th August, 2011 (Dev Darshan Sud ),J. (sl)