Live-link between harassment & death needed for proving dowry

There must be a "proximate" and "live link" between the dowry harassment of a woman and her unnatural death to establish that the offence was of dowry death, the Supreme Court has ruled.
A bench of Justices Vikramajit Sen and R K Agrawal, however, said one of the pre-requisites of Section 304B (dowry death) of the IPC that the woman should be subjected to dowry harassments 'soon before her death' for the offence being held as dowry death has to be ascertained by the courts only.
"In other words, there must be existence of a proximate and live link between the effect of cruelty based on dowry demand and the death concerned. If the alleged incident of cruelty is remote in time and has become stale enough not to disturb the mental equilibrium of the woman concerned, it would be of no consequence," the court said.

To attract the provisions of Section 304B, one of the main ingredients of the offence which is required to be established is that 'soon before her death' she was subjected to cruelty or harassment 'for, or in connection with demand for dowry', it said.
"Though the language used is 'soon before her death', no definite period has been enacted and the expression 'soon before her death' has not been defined in both the enactments.
"Accordingly, the determination of the period which can come within the term 'soon before her death' is to be determined by the courts, depending upon the facts and circumstances of each case," the court said.

The bench then referred to ingredients of offence of dowry death and said that the death of a woman must have been caused by burns or bodily injury or otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage.
"Soon before her death, the woman must have been subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relatives of her husband," it said, adding that such harassment must be "for, or in connection with, demand for dowry".
The observations have come in a verdict by which the court upheld the life term awarded to one Karamvir and his mother for harassing his wife for dowry that led her to commit suicide in 1996 in Rohtak in Haryana.