Chander Bhan and Others vs State of Haryana

M.M. Punchhi, J.—There are three Appellants, who stand convicted u/s 306, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to seven years'' rigorous imprisonment as also to pay a fine of Rs. 500/-, each, in default further rigorous imprisonment for six months. These are Radhey Shyam and his parents Chander Bhan and Smt. Phulan Devi.

Pithily put, the allegation of the prosecution against the Appellants was that they had abetted the suicide of Smt. Santra, the wife of Radhey Shyam. To begin with, the prosecution had even ventured to charge the Appellants u/s 302, Indian Penal Coda, but the learned trial Judge found no evidence to support the charge and, therefore, they were acquitted of the offence u/s 302, Indian Penal Code. The entire complex thus got charged. From one of volitional murder it turned out to be volitional suicide conspired into, aided and abetted by the Appellants. As the story goes, Smt. Santra was the daughter of Bhim Singh PW. The mar-riage between Radhey Shyam Appellant and Santra took place in April 1980. The parties are traditional shop-keepers and petty businessmen, whore dowry is one of the afflictions. As it turned out to be, the dowry which Smt. Santra brought at the time of the marriage was not the satisfaction of her in-laws. All was not thus straight in the union and allegedly the Appellants started harassing, torturing and taunting the unfortunate girl. She was allegedly even given beatings. On the demand created by Radhey Shyam, Bhim Singh, father of Santra, gave at one time Rs. 10,000/- for starting business For a while the matter seemed to cool down, but later she was turned out of her husband''s house and had to seek shelter in her parents'' house at Gobindgarh in Punjab. Further, in the month of July/August, 1981, another demand of Rs. 20,000/- was created. Since that could not be met and the Appellants were adament in obtaining it, Santra was coastrained to file a petition against her husband u/s 125, Code of Criminal Procedure, in the Court of the Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Amloh. The petition, after some hearings, was compromised on intervention some respectable. Though Santra was net willing to go to her husband''s house apprehending danger to her life but on persuasion of others she accompanied him. The afore described torture continued against her and she complained to her father about it on her two or three visits to Gobindgarh. In the meantime, however, she had given birth to a female child. After three or four months of the compromise in the petition, a son was born to her in December 1983. The birth of the son again constrained the father of Santra to send her customary presents known as Chhuchhak worth Rs. 5,000/-. But again there was dissatisfaction over its worth, for the Appellants expected much more. Some demands in the form of Chadars made by the Appellants were met by Santra''s father but he could not meet other demands to increase the value of Chhuchhak to the tune of Rs. 20,000/-. Such was the background in which Santra was living in her husband''s house.

On December 29, 1983, Santra was found to have burnt herself to death in her house by the means of pouring kerosene oil on her. Risal Singh PW-9, who happens to be uncle of Bhim Singh (father of Sangra) gave a telephonic message to Bhim Singh, informing him that his daughter had died in the hospital. Thereupon, Bhim Singh and his son Hari Om, PW-8 and PW 10 respectively, reached the Medical College and Hospital, Rohtak. They were fortunate to find the the corpse of Santra there, because in the meantime the demand of her in-laws to take the dead body was frustrated by Risal Singh It is stated that the Appellants wept before Risal Singh and begged of his pardon for the sin committed by them, requesting him to hush up the matter and not to precipitate it However, he expressed his inability to do so and had necessarily to wait for the father of the deceased. Seemingly, no such request was repeated before the father of the deceased. Aggrieved as be was, Bhim Singh then on December 31, 1983 moved an application Exhibit PH to the police narrating out the aforesaid details giving a tinge that his daughter had been put to death by the Appellants and this was his suspicion Thereupon, a formal F.I.R. was registered and the police took steps to investigate the case

The medical expert who examined the deceased en December 29, 1983, observed that she was smelling of kerosene oil and all the injuries suffered by her were dangerous to her life because the burns were fairly extensive. Despite treatment, the victim died while being examined for her burns. The Appellants were then arrested for the charges of murder and this is how the matter was put up for trial

The prosecution evidence, besides that of medical experts and the investigation, consists of Bhim Singh PW-8, Risal Singh PW-9 and Hari Om PW-10. Their evidence is crucial to the determination whether the Appellants were guilty of having committed offence u/s 306. Indian Penal Code. The Appellants, on the other hand, have a counter version. It was claimed by them that Radhey Shyam in order to preserve peace in his house, had started living in the heart of the village in the ancestral house whereas his parents had shifted to another house on the outskirts of the village. From this, it was suggested that his parents were no longer living with Radhey Shyam and that whatever transpired between Radhey Shyam and his wife that was exclusively confined to him. According to Radhey Shyam, he had never maltreated his wife for bringing insufficient dowry. Though he could not deny that his wife had once brought a claim for maintenance against him, but he pleaded that it had been settled without any pre conditions worth mentioning. His version about the day of the occurrence was that Smt. Santra died by accidental fire while she was boiling milk for the infant son and when he was sitting in his shop, which was close by, statedly he heard shrieks and rushed to the kitchen and found Shanta burning According to him, he simultaneously raised alarm and tried to extinguish the fire but to no avail. He even received burns at his hands. Later, as alleged by him, he along with his father Chander Bhan and brother Ved Parkash brought Santra to the Medical College and Hospital, Rohtak, and got her admitted there, trying to save her life. He further says that he deputed Risal Singh PW for sending the information to his father-in-law Bhim Singh. Further he goes on to say that the cremation of Santra was done without any objection and in the presence of his father in-law and his relatives, but it was later that the case was concocted against him involving him in the crime. The other two Appellants supported the defense plea taken by him. The defense was not altogether implausible when viewed with the acquittal u/s 302, Indian Penal Code.

Radhey Shyam did not step in just making the statement, but went on to produce defence evidence. Dr. Subodh Nawal DW-1 deposed to his having attended Radhey Shyam Appellant on December 29, 1983, finding burns on both of his hands. DW 2 Sardar Singh, Sarpanch of the village, deposed that on December 29, 1983, at 4 p.m. he was attracted towards the house of Radhey Shyam and found Santra lying wrapped in a quilt on a cot in burnt condition and when he questioned her as to how she had received the burns, she replied to him that it was on account of the bursting of stove. He mentioned the presence of a few others as well, inclusive of Attar Singh D W. 3. He supported the Appellant in saying that his parents lived in the house situated near the Bus Stand at the outskirts while Radhey Shyam resided in the heart of the village where he was running Karyana shop forming part of his house. DW-3 Attar Singh said the same thing as that of DW-2 Sardar Singh. DW-4 Babu Lal, a neighbor of Radhey Shyam, stated that he too had heard cries at the time of the incident and when he went inside the house of Radhey Shyam he found that Radhey Shyam was trying to extinguish the fire and after that he wrapped the body of Smt. Santra and placed her on the cot and in the process Radhey Shyam Appellant burnt his hands DW 5 Dr. Kitab Singh of the Medical College and Hospital, Rohtak, who too had examined Radhey Shyam for his hand burns deposed to that effect.

As known before, the learned trial Judge in convicting the Appellant u/s 306 Indian Penal Code, had to believe the prosecution version so far as the infliction of torture, maltreatment and harassment of Smt. Santra on account of inadequate dowry and customary presents are concerned. The learned trial Judge scathingly discerned the evidence of the defense witnesses and came to the conclusion that they were not reliable to dislodge the prosecution case. And this is how the Appellants came to be convicted.

The case is to be viewed, as has rightly been urged by Mr. U. D. Gour, learned Counsel for the Appellants, on the premises that Smt. Santra burnt herself to death. Ordinarily, no person would end his or her life voluntarily, unless be or she was fed up with it and can do that act unaided as also aided. Section 306, Indian Penal Code, conceives of abetment of suicide in the terms and meaning of abetment as understood in Section 107, Indian Penal Code. Abetment of a thing as defined therein can broadly be categorised as instigation, conspiring for the purpose and intentionally aiding by any act or illegal remission in the doing of that thing. It is in this light that the prosecution evidence is to be viewed as to whether the conduct of the Appellants led on to instigate Smt. Santra to commit suicide. If not, was that conduct such that it tantamounted to conspiracy so that she end up her life by suicide. And lastly, if not, whether there was any intentional aid by any act or illegal omission to her committing suicide. On going through the evidence of these three witnesses, namely, Bhim Singh PW-8, Risal Singh PW-9 and Hari Om PW-10, one thing becomes clear that Smt. Santra had not yet found her roots in her in-laws'' house and she was always at her wits end in order to keep them satisfied with the occasional demands of dowry. These P Ws are not clear, however, about the day to day adjustment which the husband and wife may mutually have arrived at while living together in a sepearate house away from the in-laws'' influence. No suggestion to her to end her life was positively referred to. It cannot be forgotten that in the meantime Santra had given birth to two children to Radhey Shyam. All may not have been well in the house and the occasional and periodic meetings in the in-laws may have even left her troubled and distressed. But this by itself is not enough to conclude that there was any intentional abetment for her to commit suicide. It can well be argued on behalf of the Appellants that without the least intending. Smt. Santra to end up her life, their conduct was only reflective of the common conduct of the parents in-law who have the cesire to compensate themselves in the form of customary presents and otherwise for the up-bringing of their son at the cost of their daughter-in-law and her family members. From this conduct of theirs, to my mind, Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code immediately gets attracted, which may be worth reproducing here:-

498A. Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty.

Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine. Explanation.-For the purposes of this section "cruelty" means-

(a) any wilful conduct which is of such a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health (whether mental or physical) of the woman; or

(b) harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any other parson related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand.

Without much ado about the minute details which have been painstakingly noted by the learned trial Judge, I conclude that the conduct of the Appellants was cruel in the sense of the explanation (b) afore-referred to, which was with a view to source Smt. Santra or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or it was on account of failure by her and the persons related to her to meet such demands. I further go on to conclude that the conduct of the Appellants was not willfully of such a nature as was likely to drive Smt. Santra to commit suicide or to cause any grave injury or danger to her life, limb or health; least of all wilful intending to achieve that result. As alluded to earlier, the family background of the parties was of petty business and since their minds would have normally worked towards small gains cashable on the incident of marriage, the cruelty inflicted by them on Smt. Santra fell within explanation (b). On that conclusion inevitably the conviction of the Appellants u/s 306, Indian Penal Code, is altered to one u/s 498A, Indian Penal Cede, for which, though the sentence can extend to three years'' rigorous imprisonment and to fine as well, I would reduce the sentence of the Appellants to the period already undergone. It need he highlighted that the Appellants were arrested way back on 6th January 1984. The two males out of them have remained throughout in custody till today, whereas the female for some interval has remained on bail. Besides the substantial sentence of the period fixed as the period already undergone, they shall pay also a fine of Rs. 500/- each under this count, in default whereof further rigorous imprisonment for three months.

9 Thus, for the aforesaid discussion, this appeal is partially allowed to the extent afore-indicated.