Chandigarh: Life term for husband, in-laws who killed woman for dowry
The victim’s in-laws had claimed that she hung herself with her dupatta; she was taken to Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, Chandigarh, where she was declared brought dead
Five years after it established that a suspected dowry death from 2018 was in fact a murder, a local court on Thursday awarded life imprisonment to the victim’s husband, mother-in-law and brother-in-law.
For the murder of Manjit — her husband Vijay Kumar, brother-in-law Bunty and mother-in-law Parkasho were found guilty under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They were also fined ₹55,000 each.
As per the FIR, on September 29, 2018, police received information that Manjit, who was 26 at that time and a resident of Pakki Colony, Sector 52, had ended her life.
Her in-laws had claimed that she hung herself with her dupatta. She was taken to Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, where she was declared brought dead.
Her brother, who is a driver, complained to the police that his sister had married Vijay Kumar on November 16, 2011. Ever since, she was ill-treated by her in-laws, including her husband, brother-in-law, mother-in-law and father-in-law, who would beat her up for more dowry. They raised demands for a car and motorcycle.
When his youngest sister’s marriage was fixed for November 3, 2018, they had again beaten her up and eventually, he learned of her “suicide”. On the basis of his complaint, an FIR was registered at the Sector 36 police station on September 30, 2018.
When the case was committed to the sessions court for trial on March 1, 2019, the medical opinion of a doctor on the death of the victim ruled that it was homicidal in nature.
While earlier it was believed that she had hung herself with her dupatta, after the doctor’s opinion, it was found that the cloth was unlikely to cause death due to ligature strangulation, which was observed in her post-mortem procedure.
Earlier, the FIR had been filed under Sections 304-B (dowry death) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC. Eventually, Section 302 (murder) was added in the FIR.
While the father-in-law, Prem Chand, died on February 1, 2019, the trial continued against the rest of the three. They were pronounced guilty on September 9 and the quantum of sentence was pronounced on Thursday.