Court convicts man for cruelty, dowry death of his wife

A Delhi court has convicted a man for dowry death of and cruelty towards his wife who hung herself within 12 days of marriage, but acquitted him of murder charge.
"Undoubtedly, it is a social and heinous crime to have the wife hanged to death but without any proper and reliable evidence, the court cannot by itself justify its conclusion of murder by the husband. Therefore, prosecution has failed to prove the alternative charge under section 302 (murder) of IPC," Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Dudeja said.
Noting the postmortem report had proved the presence of bruises and lacerations on the victim's body, he said the accused "has not been able to explain how the deceased suffered such injuries.

"...The presence of bruises and lacerated wounds on the victim proves that she was being subjected to cruelty and ... the medical evidence corroborates the testimony of brother of the deceased."
The court, which is yet to pronounce the sentence to be awarded to the convict, said "in my view, prosecution has been able to prove that deceased was subjected to harassment by accused Rakesh on account of demand of money soon before her death" and convicted the man for offences under sections 498A (cruelty) and 304B (dowry death) of the IPC.
The court said though the "husband being the companion in the house ought to be able to explain as to the circumstances under which his wife was found lying hanged in the bedroom, there also exists an obligation on the part of the prosecution to prove the guilt of accused beyond all reasonable doubt."

It acquitted the victim's two sisters-in-law of charges of cruelty and harrassment for dowry saying the "prosecution has been able to prove its case against accused Rakesh Sharma but has failed to substantiate charges against accused Neelam Sharma and Lata Sharma."

During the trial, Rakesh refuted the allegations levelled against him and claimed that his wife was short-tempered.
According to the prosecution, Delhi resident Rakesh had married the woman on March 13, 2012 in Himachal Pradesh.
On March 25, 2012, the woman committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan at her matrimonial house after being subjected with cruelty and harrassment for dowry.

Police alleged that a day before the incident, Rakesh was paid Rs 1.5 lakh as dowry by the victim's father.