Maha: Court acquits woman's husband, 2 others in dowry death case

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A court in Maharashtra's Thane district has acquitted a 37-year-old man, his mother and sister in a case of causing death of his wife and subjecting her to cruelty for dowry. Additional Sessions Judge PM Gupta, in the order passed on October 20, gave the benefit of doubt to the accused while observing that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them.

A copy of the order was made available on Saturday. The prosecution told the court that the deceased woman got married to the man here in February 2012 and lived with her in-laws in Bhiwandi town of Thane. After some days, they allegedly forced the victim to get money from her parents. When she refused, she was mentally and physically harassed and the man threatened to divorce her.

Following the harassment, the woman committed suicide in April 2015, the prosecution told the court. A case was later registered against her husband, mother-in-law aged 80 and sister-in-law (35) under Indian Penal Code Sections 304B (dowry death), 498A (husband or his relative subjecting woman to cruelty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

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In his order, the judge noted that the prosecution examined the deceased's brother and father who deposed that after the marriage there were disputes between the deceased and the accused on one or two occasions over domestic issues and they were resolved amicably. The father of the deceased also said the woman was short-tampered and due to her nature she might have committed suicide.

The aforesaid witnesses are brother and father of the deceased, therefore their evidence is relevant in the case. However, they have not supported the prosecution case, the court observed. Thus, there is no evidence brought on record that the accused persons subjected the deceased to cruelty for fulfilling their illegal demand of dowry or money. There is no evidence that the accused persons physically and mentally illtreated the deceased because of which she ended her life.

The court also said there is no evidence on record to prove that the accused persons committed offences under IPC Sections 304B and 498A. The prosecution failed to prove the guilt of accused persons for these offences, hence they need to be acquitted, the judge said.

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