JUDGEMENT ATTACHED BELOW:
NEW DELHI:
A 95-year-old woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi high court after finding her guilty in a dowry death case in 1996. A division bench of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Sunil Gaur held Sumitra guilty of burning to death her daughter-in-law and seven-month-old grandson, 13 years after a trial court acquitted her in the case. The high court relied on the dying declaration of the victim, given more than 15 years ago, while passing the judgment
Giving full credence to the dying declaration of the victim, Meenu, the bench sentenced Sumitra to life imprisonment for committing the double murder in collusion with her elder son and daughter-in-law.
Meenu was killed for bringing insufficient dowry, according to the prosecution, which also informed the court that the infant was in his mother's arms at the time of the crime.
The elder son and daughter-in-law of the convict died early this year before the high court could conclude its hearing on the Delhi Police's appeal against their acquittal.
In her dying declaration Meenu had told the sub-divisional magistrate that her mother-in-law, along with her elder son and daughter-in-law, had set her ablaze after dousing her with kerosene even as she held her child in her arms. She said that though her husband and her father-in-law never harassed her, her mother-in-law, elder brother her mother-in-law, elder brother-in-law and sister-in-law used to frequently harass her for dowry.
The incident took place on March 20, 1996.
The trial court had found Sumitra innocent after relying on the deposition by the victim's mother, who had submitted that her daughter was unconscious when she had tried to talk to her in hospital. Pulling up the trial court judge, the high court said "such an approach of the trial court is not only patently perverse but has also resulted in grave miscarriage of justice."
"In the instant case, we have found the dying declaration of Meenu completely trustworthy and there is no valid basis from which it could be said that the declarant was not in a fit state of mind to give the statement." Meenu was married to Sumitra's son Sanjay about one-and-a-half years before the incident in Amarpuri in central Delhi.
