86-year-old Kuldeep Kaur is confined to her bed due to various ailments related to old age. She also underwent a heart surgery after a trial court gave her three years in jail on the charge of abetment to suicide in a 12-year-old case.
Kaur's daughter-in-law committed suicide in June 2001, a few months after her marriage. As an undertrial, Kaur had already spent six months in jail.
Taking into account her old age and ailments, the Supreme Court has set aside the trial court's conviction order for abetment to suicide and also reversed the high court's verdict affirming the same in January last year.
The apex court also accepted the argument of Kaur's lawyer that the trial court had acquitted all other family members including the victim's husband of the charges of dowry harassment in the case but convicted only her.
A bench of justices MY Eqbal and Pinaki Chandra Ghose said, "In our opinion, the evidence adduced against the appellant (Kaur) does not establish the case under Section 306 of the IPC. On the basis of evidence of the prosecution witnesses, conviction of the appellant alone cannot be sustained.
"The trial court had acquitted all the accused except the present appellant and the said judgment was affirmed by the High Court. We do not find any strong reason to agree with the judgment of conviction passed by the trial court and affirmed by the High Court as against her, " the bench also said.
The trial court in 2006 had acquitted Kaur and other four members of the family from the charges of dowry harassment (498 A of IPC) under the Dowry Prohibition law except holding her guilty for driving the daughter-in-law to take the extreme step under only section 306 IPC (abetment) .
In its findings, the trial court had said that the deceased did not commit suicide due to cruelty caused to her in connection with demand of dowry but considered the content of the diary of the deceased in which it was written that the victim was depressed due to her mother-in-law, who used to ask her to work till late night .
According to the prosecution, on June 6, 2001, a complaint was lodged by Captain Jagtar Singh, father of the deceased, at Sitarganj police station in Uttarakhand.
The complainant said his daughter, who had married Kaur's son Upkar Singh in March 2001, was harrassed by her in-laws for a car. Finally ,she was driven to commit suicide under compelling circumstances.
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