Woman's suicide over dowry harassment: 7-year RI for in-laws

A court in Chhattisgarh's Janjgir- Champa district has sentenced the parents-in-law and brother- in-law of a woman to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for dowry harassment, due to which she had committed suicide in 2014.
Additional District and Sessions judge (fast-track court) Santosh Kumar Aditya sentenced Pitamber Mirchanya (57), his wife Rajkumari Mirchanya (52) and their younger son Pramod Kumar (22) to seven years of rigorous imprisonment yesterday, public prosecutor Santosh Kumar Gupta said today.
According to the prosecution, the victim, Brihaspati Bai, had got married to Pitamber Mirchanya's elder son, Sanat Kumar, a resident of Akaltara area here, in 2012.

After the marriage, she was often harassed by her in-laws for dowry, including a demand for Rs 50,000 and a motorcycle.
Fed up with the harassment, the woman set herself afire on August 12, 2014. Subsequently, she died at the Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Science (CIMS) hospital in Bilaspur during treatment, the prosecutor said.
Based on the woman's statement, which was recorded before her death, an FIR was lodged in this connection by the Akaltara police, he added.
After the hearing yesterday, the court awarded seven years of rigorous imprisonment to the deceased's parents-in- law and brother-in-law, after holding them guilty under IPC sections 304B (causing death for dowry) and 34 (common intention), Gupta said.

However, the court acquitted the woman's husband and sister-in-law, who were also arrested in the case, as the charges against them were not proved, he added.