A man has been acquitted of charges of subjecting his wife to cruelty for dowry and causing her death by a Delhi court which held that the complaint was filed merely with some "oblique motive" on the part of victim's mother to falsely implicate him.
Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala absolved north-east Delhi resident Babbal of the offences under sections 498-A(subjecting woman to cruelty), 304-B(dowry death), 120-B(criminal conspiracy) and 201(destruction of evidence) of the IPC.
"From the case in hand, I do find that complaint was filed merely with some oblique motive on the part of PW-1 (mother of the victim), to falsely implicate accused in this case. May be it was a pressure tactic to achieve some other objectives," the judge said.
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The court, on the complaint filed by Santosh, victim's mother, said that her testimony was not truthful and she had come up with artificial account of facts.
"She alleged in her testimony that her daughter had written a letter to her, wherein she made allegations against her in-laws for not treating her well and for not providing food to her. This letter was never proved on record.
"She had further alleged that Babbal used to harass the victim but did not disclose that how she came to know about such harassment. There is no concrete statement...," the court said.
It also noted that the victim's brother did not mention at any point about demand of dowry or harassment.
"I have no hesitation to hold that no case of culpable homicide had taken place. I also find that the allegations of demand of dowry or cruelty upon victim are not proved on the record. In these circumstances, accused Babbal is acquitted of all the charges," the judge said.
According to the prosecution, in January 2007, the victim, who got married in 1999, was admitted to a hospital with burn injuries.
Four days later she expired and her mother filed a complaint alleging that Babbal and his family members had burned her after pouring kerosene oil on her.
She claimed that they used to torture her daughter for dowry.
According to the complaint, the victim's mother received information of the incident through her son and when she visited the victim's matrimonial home, she found the victim crying for help. She also alleged that victim's in-laws threatened to kill her if she complained against them.
Babbal denied all allegations and claimed that he was falsely implicated by the victim's mother.
