Manohar Lal vs State Of Haryana

2. The case of the prosecution is that Phullan @ Darshana, (deceased) was married to the accused-Manohar Lal about 5 years prior to her death which took place on 27th August, 1991. She was subjected to harassment for dowry and finally she died on account of burn injuries. Raj Rani (PW-1), mother of the deceased on learning about the incident, went to Civil Hospital and found the victim dead. Thereafter she made statement (Exh.PD) before the Police at 12.05 P.M. on 28th August, 1991, on the basis of which FIR was registered. Apart from the appellant, his brothers Krishan Lal, Harbans Lal, his father Gopal Dass, mother Shanti and wife of the brother Smt. Champa were also made accused.

-Ex. P.7, steel bowl -Ex. P-8, burnt match sticks Ex.P.9 to Ex.P.11 and half burnt piece of cloth alongwith some cash. .After sealing the same into separate parcels with the seal of SK, vide recovery memo Ex. P.N. attested by PWs site plan-Ex.P.O. was also prepared by him with correct marginal notes. Photographs of the dead body were also taken by Swaran Kumar (PW.7). The dead body was sent to the Civil Hospital, through constable Krishan Lal, for post-mortem examination. On the next day, Raj Rani(PW.1) made her statement -Ex.P.D. on which endorsement -Ex.PD/1 was made and on the basis of which formal FIR -Ex.P.D./2 was recorded by ASI- Ram Krishna. Krishan Lal, Constable produced before him one pair of ear rings of gold which were made into a parcel and sealed with the seal SK and taken into possession vide recovery memo Ex.P.P.. The accused were arrested on 30th August, 1991 and dowry articles were recovered and were taken into possession vide memo Ex.P.O. Complainant-Raj Rani (PW.1) also produced before him the list of Kanayadan Mark A. After completion of the investigation, all the accused were charge-sheeted for offence under Section 498-A /34 IPC and Section 304B/34 IPC, to which the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

3. The prosecution examined altogether nine witnesses and placed on record the documentary evidence. Defence also produced Ram Prakash as defence witness. The Trial Court after hearing the parties and on appreciation of evidence by the judgment dated 25th August, 1994 convicted the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 304B IPC and sentenced him to undergo RI for seven years. The rest of the accused i.e. his brothers Krishan Lal, Harbans Lal, his father Gopal Dass, mother Shanti and wife of the brother Smt. Champa were acquitted by the Trial Court on the ground that they were all residing separately at a far place from the place of occurrence where deceased was living with the appellant.

5. Raj Rani (PW.1), mother of the deceased- Darshana @Phullan stated that the accused married her daughter about five years back. The accused used to harass her daughter on account of inadequacy of dowry and used to make demands for cash. According to PW-1, the accused made a demand of Rs. 10,000/- which she could not meet. All the accused persons used to give beatings to Darshana @ Phullan and she was pressurized to bring more items of dowry while sufficient dowry was given to the accused at the time of marriage. Initially for about eight days, the accused kept her daughter nicely but thereafter she used to be harassed and beaten by the accused repeatedly. During the life time of father of the deceased, he used to meet the dowry demands of the appellant. The deceased used to complain that her husband was not allowing her to stay in the matrimonial home unless some payments were made and the complainant(PW.1) had been paying her money and used to sent her back to the matrimonial house by meeting the demands of the appellant.

14. After closing of the prosecution evidence, the accused were examined under Section 313 Cr.P.C. on all the material particulars appearing against them. Accused-Manohar Lal admitted his marriage with the deceased. He denied the other allegations against him. He took specific plea that he had separated from his parents just after the marriage and was living at Yamuna Nagar. He pleaded innocence and stated that for the last 4 or 5 years, he was working with Prakash Transport as driver and was living happily with his wife. A daughter was also born out of their wedlock. He never made any demand of dowry and never maltreated the deceased- Darshana @ Phullan. He also stated that his wife-deceased Darshana @ Phullan got her cousin sister Santosh engaged with his brother Kishan about 2 years prior to the incident. About 2 ½ months before the incident, his brother refused to accept the proposal of relationship due to which relations between his in- laws and his parents became strained. They stopped visiting his parents and his parents also stopped visiting his in-laws. On the day of occurrence, he was away and on return in the evening he found his wife dead. He alleged that his in-laws were demanding money which he did not give, and as a result, false case of dowry-death got registered against him.

The accused-Manohar Lal is acquitted from the charge under Section 304B IPC. The appeal is allowed. Bail Bonds, if any, stand discharged.

Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya pronounced the reportable judgment of the Bench comprising His Lordship and Hon'ble Mr. Justice Dipak Misra.

The appeal is allowed in terms of the signed reportable judgment.

[Signed reportable judgment is placed on the file]