MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has set aside the conviction of a Satara man who was found guilty 27 years ago for abetment to suicide and cruelty towards his wife, holding that taunting a woman over her dark complexion or criticising her cooking does not amount to “cruelty”.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by Sadashiv Rupnawar, who was sentenced by a sessions court in 1998 for abetment to suicide (section 306) and cruelty (section 498-A) after the death of his 22-year-old wife, Prema.
Prema had gone missing from her matrimonial home in Degaon village in January 1998, five years after their marriage. Her body was later found in a well. Based on a complaint from her family, police registered a case against Rupnawar and his father, accusing them of harassment leading to her death.
While the trial court had acquitted the father, it found Sadashiv guilty and sentenced him to one year for cruelty and five years for abetment. Rupnawar, who was 23 years old at the time and worked as a shepherd, had filed an appeal the same year.
A single-judge bench of justice S M Modak observed that the allegations of harassment were limited to the husband taunting his wife over her dark complexion and threatening to remarry, while the father-in-law allegedly criticised her cooking skills. “They can be said to be quarrels arising out of matrimonial life. They are domestic quarrels. It cannot be said to be of such a high degree so as to compel Prema to die by suicide,” the court said.
{{/usCountry}}A single-judge bench of justice S M Modak observed that the allegations of harassment were limited to the husband taunting his wife over her dark complexion and threatening to remarry, while the father-in-law allegedly criticised her cooking skills. “They can be said to be quarrels arising out of matrimonial life. They are domestic quarrels. It cannot be said to be of such a high degree so as to compel Prema to die by suicide,” the court said.
{{/usCountry}}The judge noted that the prosecution had failed to establish a direct link between the alleged harassment and the suicide. “There was harassment, but it was not that kind of harassment due to which criminal law can be set in motion,” the court said. It added that both abetment and suicide must be independently proved for conviction under abetment to suicide.
The court criticised the trial court for misapplying the explanation provided under section cruelty to a married woman, which requires wilful conduct of a grave nature. “The learned judge has forgotten the basic principles and ingredients of the sections,” it said.
Setting aside the conviction, the court acquitted Rupnawar of all charges.
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