'Suspicion of unhealthy marriage not proof of harassment and cruelty'
New Delhi: The fact that a woman killed herself after "normal wear and tear" in the family in the initial months of marriage cannot amount to the conclusion "that the deceased was tortured to such an extent that she was compelled to commit suicide", a Delhi court ruled, while acquitting the woman's husband and two in-laws of charges of harassment over dowry and abetment of suicide.
Additional Sessions Judge Charu Aggarwal in her order further observed that if a bride commits suicide in unnatural circumstances within a few days or even a month of her marriage, the law raises presumption against the boy's family "but doesn't it also show hyper sensitivity of a girl who did not give time to this pious relationship".
While acquitting the woman's husband, mother-in-law and brother-in-law of all the charges, the court noted that nothing has come on record that the accused persons by their any act of action instigated the deceased to commit suicide.
The suicide note as presented during the trial, once translated, read: "I have seen what kind of man he is in this one month. Mummy, we cannot live together and I'd prefer peace once and for all over this fighting every day. Mummy, because there is no point in coming to you it is better I take this step. This is why I am doing all this. I have nothing else to say. All is over."
The court said that the suicide note only reflects normal wear and tear between deceased and her husband and nothing more than that. As per the case records, the deceased Rajwati got married to one Vijay on December 12, 2013, but almost a month later on January 11, 2014, she killed herself by hanging from a fan at her matrimonial home in Kishanganj. Her husband, mother-in-law Lajwanti and brother-in-law Manoj were accused of harassing her over dowry and hence compelling her to kill herself.
In their testimonies, both the father and mother of the deceased claimed that immediately after marriage, the accused persons started demanding a motorcycle which was being denied by the father to her in-laws.
The court stated that the tendency of the court should not be "that since any bride had died after marriage, now somebody must be held culprit and the noose must be meted to fit some neck".
The court noted that the prosecution had miserably failed to prove harassment over dowry.
"Committing of suicide by deceased by hanging herself, that too within eight months of the marriage, does raise a suspicion that everything was not normal," the court said, while quoting from another 2011 judgment, adding: "This suspicion, however, cannot be a substitute for the proof of dowry demand of subjecting the deceased to harassment and cruelty…"
