Criminal Appeal No. 77-DBA of 2000 -1- **** IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Criminal Appeal No. 77-DBA of 2000 Date of decision: 14 .7.2008. State of Punjab .....Appellant Versus Malkiat Singh and others ...Respondents **** CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ADARSH KUMAR GOEL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S. D. ANAND **** Present: Mr. D.S. Brar, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab Mr. Ajay Kaushik, Advocate as Amicus Curiae. **** S. D. ANAND, J. The State of Punjab has filed the present appeal to obtain an order setting at nought of the finding of the exoneration, recorded by the learned Trial Judge in favour of respondents/accused, who were prosecuted by the police of Police Station, Shah Kot in case FIR No. 34 dated 22.3.1997, on a charge under Section 304-B IPC. (Initially the challan was filed only against Malkiat Singh and Amar Kaur. Respondents Mohinder Singh and Rani, who had been shown in column No. 2 in the challan, came to be summoned for trial in an order in terms of Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). The prosecution allegation was that respondents/accused were responsible for causing the dowry death of deceased Kashmir Kaur (Respondent Malkiat Singh is husband of the deceased lady whom he Criminal Appeal No. 77-DBA of 2000 -2- **** married in the year 1993, Respondents Amar Kaur, Mohinder Singh and Rani are mother, brother and sister respectively of respondent Malkiat Singh). While analysing the evidence to find out whether the deceased had been subjected to any dowry related torture immediately preceding her death, the learned Trial Judge noticed that the mediator ( PW-6 Harmesh Singh) and her brother (PW-5 Darshan Singh) had not supported the prosecution attribution and even her father Mit Singh had not been able to state anything substantive and affirmative in character to nail the respondents/accused. The Trial Judge noticed that testimony of PW-5 Darshan Singh was conspicuous by silence on the point of deceased having been subjected to any dowry related torture. Insofar as the Mit Singh is concerned, he was found to have improved the presentation made in the course of the FIR. In that context, it was noticed that the only grievance in the course of the First Information Report was that she was belaboured by her husband and the respondents/accused Mohinder Singh, Amar Kaur and Rani on account of her inability to conceive a child. No allegation qua dowry-related torture appeared in the FIR. The allegation in the context appeared, for the first time only in the testimony at trial. That allegation was not found to be reliable. Learned Trial Court further noticed that PW-10 Charanjit Singh, also did not support the prosecution version by stating that he did not notice any bickering between the deceased and Malkiat Singh. He, too, was declared hostile by the prosecution. He denied having made the attributed statement to the police alleging dowry-related torture of the Criminal Appeal No. 77-DBA of 2000 -3- **** deceased at the hands of respondents/accused. We have examined the material obtaining on the file and find that the impugned finding of acquittal is based on factually correct premise. The impugned finding, apart from being relatable to the material obtaining on record, is not perverse at all. We find no cause to interfere. Dismissed. ( S. D. ANAND ) JUDGE July 14, 2008 (ADARSH KUMAR GOEL) Pka JUDGE