Bombay High Court: A Bench comprising of P.N. Deshmukh, J. dismissed an appeal filed against the trial court’s decision, by observing the material placed on record to hold that the trial court passed a well-reasoned order of acquitting the accused.
The prosecution case was that the respondents/accused ill-treated the deceased, due to which she committed suicide. The Court observed the evidence of the parents of the deceased, and stated that it is material to note that the deceased was residing with her husband (who is the elder brother of the accused), in same house but separately. It also took note of the alleged quarrel between the accused and the deceased, in which the accused stated to deceased that she should commit suicide and die. This evidence by the parents of the deceased was considered to be material, since they admitted that though they stated these facts to the Police, they were not able to explain why the same was not recorded in their statement.
The Court also found on evidence that the deceased was suffering from fits and was continuously under treatment. Head Constable, who investigated the death also admitted that deceased was epileptic patient, and on the day of incident she had an attack of epileptic in her house. Therefore, it was a possibility that the deceased committed suicide due to her ill-health. Moreover, the material omissions by the parents of the deceased in their statement were found by the Court to be going to the roots of the case, and as such don’t establish involvement of accused for the charge levelled against them. Accordingly, the appeal was dismissed and the decision of the trail court was confirmed, as upon perusal of the impugned judgment and material placed on record it was held that accused came to be acquitted by the trail court by passing well reasoned order. [State of Maharashtra v. Ramesh Damodar More, 2017 SCC OnLine Bom 750, decided on 11.05.2017]
