Court awards life imprisonment to mother, son for dowry death

A local court awarded life imprisonment to a man and his mother on Wednesday after finding them guilty of murdering a 24-year-old woman in 2016 over dowry

A local court awarded life imprisonment to a man and his mother on Wednesday after finding them guilty of murdering a 24-year-old woman in 2016 over dowry.

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The police said the deceased, Rekha, got married to one Bhupender Swami, a resident of Dayanand Colony of Gurugram, in July 2015. At the time of the wedding, her father had spent a considerable amount of money on ceremonial rituals and gifts. However, according to the police, Rekha’s in-laws were unhappy with the dowry and started forcing her to bring ₹10 lakh from her father.

After continuous torture and harassment, Rekha’s family in March 2016 gave her in-laws a washing machine and ₹2 lakh in cash but this failed to end the harassment and torture, the police said. A month later, Rekha was thrashed by her in-laws and was admitted to hospital, the police said.

In June 2016, Rekha’s family members were informed about her sudden death. Her in-laws informed her family members that she had committed suicide. The family members alleged that there were marks on her body and that she was killed by her in-laws for dowry. “They started torturing her from the beginning of marriage and within 10 months, they killed her even after getting additional gift and money,” said Rekha’s brother Vishnu Singh, a resident of Rewari.

On the basis of the complaint, a case was registered under sections 304B (dowry death), 498A (dowry) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Sector 5 police station against the victim’s husband, Bhupender Swami, father-in-law Hari Kishan, mother-in-law Bimla and sister-in-law Suman and her husband Suresh.

KS Rao, counsel for complainant, said that, during the investigation, the police added section 302 (murder) to the charge sheet. “In April 2019, Punjab and Haryana high court quashed the charges against Suman and Suresh and in the meantime father-in-law died a year ago,” he said.

Additional sessions judge Ashwani Kumar in his order on Wednesday, observed that the husband and in-laws behaved in an inhuman manner with an innocent girl and were responsible for her brutal death within 10 months of her marriage. Keeping in view the gravity of the offence and other facts and circumstances of the case, the accused do not deserve any leniency from the court.

Bhupender and his mother Bimla were awarded life imprisonment and the court imposed a penalty of ₹2.5 lakh on them. At the time of the judgment, Bhupender was in custody and Bimla was out on bail. Bimla was taken into custody and sent to Bhondsi jail from the court.