On may 30, 1974, in the evening.
The learned trial Judge acting on the aforesaid evidence companyvicted Kailash Kaur and Mahinder Kaur of the offence under Section 302 I.P.C. and acquitted Avtar Singh, the husband, accused giving him the benefit of doubt.
It is the prosecution case that immediately thereaf ter Mahinder Kaur caught hold of the deceased and Kailash Kaur appellant poured kerosene oil on her and set her on fire.
Amandeep Kaur expired on June 1, 1974.
He told the deceased that he would put her questions about the cause of her death.
Dr. Har Parkash Bhatia P.W. 2 , who examined her sent information to the local police station on receipt of which Head Constable Naranjan Singh P.W. 7 , went over to the hospital.
It would appear that after the door was opened Avtar Singh went away from the house.
Kailash Kaur and Mahinder Kaur started quarreling with the deceased and severely abused and threat ened her.
252 of 1975.
Avtar Singh, the husband also reached there in the meantime, As she was engulfed in flames, somebody put a blanket on Aman deep Kaur and extinguished the flames.
From the Judgment and Order dated 30.3.1978 of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Criminal Appeal No.
Thereupon, the deceased went to her room and bolted its door from inside.
Sometime later Avtar Singh, husband of the deceased, came to the house and started knocking at the door of the said room with great force because of which the door got unbolted.
The doctor sent everybody other than the Head Constable out of the room where the patient was lying.
Thereafter she was carried to the Civil Hospital, Hoshiarpur.
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION Criminal Appeal No.
Aggrieved by the said judgment, the appellant has preferred this appeal before this Court after obtaining special leave.
The High Court companyfirmed the companyviction of the appellant herein namely, Kailash Kaur, but acquitted Mahinder Kaur giving her the benefit of doubt.
At the trial the prosecution relied on Ex.
N. Mulla, R.L. Kohli, Harjinder Singh and R.C. Kohli for the Appellants.
On the basis of the questions put by the doctor, Head Constable Naranjan Singh P.W. 7 recorded her statement, on the basis of which formal First Information Report was lodged at Police Station, Hoshiarpur.
221 of 1978.
Exhibit PK is a letter written by the deceased to her father Avtar Singh W. 3 in which she has set out the details of the harass ment and maltreatment and expressed her grave apprehension that unless she was immediately taken back to the fathers house, her life itself was in imminent danger.
The deceased started screaming on hearing which the people residing in the locality rushed to the house.
S. Sodhi for the Respondent.
The hus band and his parents were allegedly unhappy about the quan tum of dowry brought by the deceased and she was being subjected to severe harassment and maltreatment with a view to extract more dowry from her parents.
Judgment of the Court was delivered by BALAKRISHNA ERADI, J. This is yet another unfortunate instance of gruesome murder of a young wife by the barbaric process of pouring kerosene oil over the body and setting her on fire as the culmination of a long process of physical and mental harassment for extraction of more dowry.
Kailash Kaur, the appellant, is the mother in law of the deceased and Mahinder Kaur who figured as the third accused in the case is the sister of Avtar Singh.
Kailash Kaur and Mahinder Kaur carried the matter in appeal before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana.
Amandeep Kaur, deceased, was married to Avtar Singh who figured as the first accused in the case in the Sessions Court.
PK writ 1224 ten by her to her father Atar Singh P.W. 3 and the evi dence of P.W. 3 wherein he stated that the appellant, her son and daughter were dissatisfied about the quantum of dowry brought by Amandeep Kaur and on that account they had been torturing her.
PF/3, the dying declaration made by the deceased Amandeep Kaur, the letter Ex.
