Himachal Pradesh High Court: The Bench of Chander Bhusan Barowalia, J. allowed a petition while setting aside the Judgment of conviction passed by the learned trial Court.
In the pertinent case, the appellant was convicted and sentenced for commission of offences punishable under Sections 306 and 498-A IPC. The chain of events as alleged were that after the marriage with the deceased (wife of the appellant), he started ill-treating and humiliating her on account of the reason that she has not brought sufficient dowry. It was also alleged that the appellant was not satisfied with the deceased as she could not give birth to a child. And that on account of cruelty meted out to the deceased by the appellant, ultimately, she consumed a heavy dose of Barbiturate, owing to which, she fell unconscious. The decease had epileptic and an overdose of the medicines was found in the Vicera report. Further, it was claimed that no medical assistance was provided to her. Certain documents were also presented before the Court for the same.
Although all such allegations were denied by the accused along with the other witnesses who all happened to be her friend and relatives. They also proved that they were living happily as they had even adopted a child.
The Court after analyzing the evidence found that the dates when the deceased fell unconscious had a disparity as were mentioned in a different set of documents.
It was also found in the evidence that the deceased was taking medicines regularly and after she fell unconscious, she was taken to PGI, Chandigarh, where she ultimately died. And the origin of documents was also suspicious on which the other party placed heavy reliance. The evidence also showed that the couple had adopted a daughter, who was studying in good school. The photographs placed on the file depicted that the couple was living happily. Therefore, the judgment of conviction passed by the learned trial Court was set aside and the appellant was acquitted of the charges.[Mahesh Gautam v. State of H.P., 2019 SCC OnLine HP 404, decided on 04-04-2019]
