THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO CRIMINAL APPEAL No.1084 of 2007 02-09-2014 BETWEEN:
State of A.P., Rep. by the Public Prosecutor, High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the State of Telangana and the State of A.P.
…..Appellant AND Kota Vinodha And another …..Respondents/accused THIS COURT MADE THE FOLLOWING JUDGMENT: THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO CRIMINAL APPEAL No.1084 of 2007 JUDGMENT:
This Criminal Appeal is preferred by the State challenging the Judgment dated 07.03.2005 passed in S.C.No.692 of 2004 by the Court of the II Additional Assistant Sessions Judge, Warangal, whereby the learned Judge acquitted A.1 and A.2 for the offence under Section 498-A IPC and 306 IPC.
The case of the prosecution is as follows.
The deceased is the daughter of P.W.1. Her marriage was performed with one Kota Sateesh Kumar on 4-5-2003. A1 and A2 are the mother and sister of said K. Sateesh Kumar. Both the deceased and her husband led happy conjugal life. A1 and A2 used to harass the deceased mentally on petty family issue and used to harass her. They also used to object to do Ph.D. A1 and A2 did not allow her to sit on chair before them. Being well educated i.e. M.Sc. Bio Chemistry Scholar and selected for Ph.D., too cannot bear such type of harassment subjected by A.1 and A.2, the deceased decided to do away her life. The deceased was sent to her parents’ house 20 days prior to her death. Accordingly, on 18-10-2003 the parents of the deceased had been to Hyderabad on some work, while the deceased along with her elder brother P.W.3 is present in the house. On the same day, P.W.3 went out on some work, the deceased closed all the doors from inside wrote a death note in a note book and committed suicide by hanging with a saree. Later, P.W.1 gave a report to the police. On which, a case was registered against A.1 and A.2 for the offence under Sections 498-A IPC and 306 IPC. After completion of the investigation, charge sheet was filed.
To prove the guilt of the accused, P.Ws.1 to 11 were examined and Exs.P.1 to P.16 were marked on behalf of the prosecution. No oral evidence was adduced on behalf of the accused but marked Ex.D.1.
On appreciation of oral and documentary evidence, the trial Court acquitted the accused for the following grounds.
(i) What is stated by P.Ws.1 to 3 in their evidence before the Court regarding the ill-treatment by the accused towards the deceased, was not stated by them either in the complaint Ex.P.2, lodged by P.W.1, or before the Investigation Officer in the Statement under Section 161 Cr.P.C., which is an important and material omission amounting to contradiction.
(ii) The prosecution has placed before the Court the suicide note written by the deceased to substantiate the guilt of the accused. On perusing the same, the suicide note does not disclose anything regarding the harassment or cruelty, which is of such a nature to drive the woman to commit suicide.
(iii) Even admitting the allegations i.e. the deceased was asked to do household works, she was treated as a servant maid and she was not respected even though she is an educated lady, to be true, the same would not come under the purview of Section 498- A IPC and 306 IPC.
Heard the learned Public Prosecutor and the learned counsel for the accused and perused the material available on record.
Considering the findings recorded by the trial Court and the evidence on record, this Court feels that the trial Court has rightly acquitted the accused for the offence under Sections 498-A IPC and 306 IPC. The Judgment of the trial Court does not suffer any perverse findings and the acquittal recorded by the trial Court needs no interference by this Court.
The Criminal Appeal is accordingly dismissed. Miscellaneous applications, if any pending in this appeal, shall stand dismissed.
JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO 02.09.2014 pln