A man and his mother have been awarded 12 years and seven years jail term respectively for torturing his wife and compelling her to commit suicide for bringing insufficient dowry with a Delhi court relying on the statement of victim's parents and medical evidence.
Additional Sessions Judge Naresh Kumar Malhotra held Delhi resident Ravi Kumar and his 50-year-old mother Maya Devi guilty of cruelty and dowry death.
"...Convict Ravi Kumar, who is the husband of the deceased, had on the day of incident given merciless beating to the deceased. There were contusions on the face of the deceased and due to the merciless beating by him, the deceased had committed suicide," the judge said.
The court awarded the varying jail terms to Kumar and his mother for the offences under sections 304B (dowry death) and 498A (cruelty) of IPC, respectively.
It also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000, which will be paid to the mother of the victim as compensation.
"I am of the view that the convict had treated the victim with utmost cruelty and also demanded dowry from the deceased and her parents and the deceased ultimately committed suicide on the fateful day of January 23, 2010," the judge said.
The court, however, acquitted all the accused, including sister-in-law and brother-in-law of the victim, of the charges of murder with common intention, saying that "the deceased committed suicide and it cannot be held that she was murdered by the accused persons".
The sister-in-law and brother-in-law of the victim were also acquitted of the charges of cruelty and dowry death as there were no specific allegation of dowry demand by the accused just before the death of the victim, the court noted.
According to the prosecution, the victim Seema was rushed to hospital by her in-laws after she was found hanging at her residence, and was declared dead on arrival.
On the complaint of the victim's mother, a case was lodged against her husband and his family members.
The husband had claimed that the victim's parents were against their love marriage and that he was sleeping in another room when his wife committed suicide.
