The Supreme Court on Friday acquitted a man convicted of cruelty and causing dowry death of his wife and said trial courts were repeatedly making the same mistakes in the such cases.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said the case was void of the “essential ingredient” as none of the statements of the witnesses contained any specific instances of cruelty or harassment.
“This court has repeatedly laid down and explained the ingredients of the offence under Section 304B. But, the trial courts are committing the same mistakes repeatedly. It is for the state judicial academies to step in. Perhaps this is a case of moral conviction,” it said.
The top court said at the time of her deposition on the dowry demand, the victim’s mother did not attribute any particular act of cruelty or harassment to the husband.
“This is an essential ingredient of Section 304-B. It is not made out from the evidence..,” the bench said.
The top court said both the offences alleged against the appellant were not proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt.
Setting aside orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the trial court, the bench acquitted the man.
The man and his parents were tried for the offences under Sections 304B (dowry death) and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) read with Section 34 of the IPC.
While his parents were acquitted, the trial court convicted the man.
The couple married on June 25, 1996 and the woman died by suicide on April 2, 1998 — within seven years of marriage. The timeframe is a prerequisite to establish the offence under Section 304B of IPC.
After the postmortem, the doctors opined the death occurred due to asphyxia from hanging.
There were three main witnesses — her mother, brother and maternal uncle.
Both the courts believed the testimony of mother and the brother.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
