Tripura High Court: The Bench of S. Talapatra, J. reversed the order of the trial court convicting the appellant for offence punishable under Section 498-A IPC and sentencing him to suffer 3 years rigorous imprisonment.
Father of the deceased alleged that the appellant (husband of the deceased) tortured her and subjected her to cruelty for not fulfilling the unlawful demand of Rs 20,000 cash and gold ornaments. Finally, on 22-12-2012, the deceased committed suicide by hanging herself. An FIR was lodged and the appellant was put to trial after pleading not guilty. At the conclusion of the trial, the trial court convicted the appellant for offence punishable under Section 498-A IPC (cruelty to woman). Aggrieved thereby, the appellant preferred the present appeal.
The High Court perused the witness evidence and noted that from a conjoint reading of testimonies, it emerged that the witnesses were greatly influenced by the shocking death of a young woman. It was pointed out that in the first instance, the witnesses failed to reveal material facts to the Investigating Officer, but when such facts were revealed in trial, their testimonial value was substantially reduced as they appeared to be improvements and become prone to be doubted. Moreover, it was observed that such improvements were made by related witnesses which made it all the more doubtful because as per the normal rule the court scrutinizes evidence of related witness with greater caution. In such circumstances, it was held that the prosecution failed to establish the charge under Section 498-A beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, the impugned order was set aside and the appellant was acquitted on benefit of doubt. [Sanjit Das v. State of Tripura, 2019 SCC OnLine Tri 27, dated 09-01-2019]
