Delhi court acquits husband, in-laws in dowry death case

A Delhi court on Wednesday acquitted a man and his parents of charges of subjecting his wife to cruelty and causing her dowry death, saying that the prosecution failed to prove the allegations beyond reasonable doubt.
Additional Sessions Judge Pooja Talwar acquitted Rohit Kumar, and his parents Sunita and Vijay Kumar in the 2016 death of Lalita, who had died by suicide within seven months of her marriage.
In an order, the court said, “As per the prosecution story, the deceased was out of her matrimonial home from September 24, 2016 and she committed suicide on October 17, 2016. In the intervening period, she was neither in touch with her husband nor with her in-laws.

“Hence, she was not under the influence of any of the accused persons for almost a month before she took the drastic step of ending her life.”
The court said the prosecution failed to establish that Lalita was subjected to cruelty or harassment by the accused in connection with dowry demands, which was essential to sustain the charges under the law.
According to the prosecution, Lalita married Rohit on March 11, 2016. Her father had alleged that the family demanded a Honda City car and gold ring before the marriage and later made further dowry demands.
Lalita returned to her parental home on September 24, 2016, and committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan on October 17, 2016. A suicide note was recovered from her clothes and her mobile phone containing voice recordings was also seized.

However, during the trial, the parents and sister of the deceased did not support the prosecution’s allegations of dowry harassment and cruelty.
The court noted that Lalita’s father had stated that she never complained to him about any dowry demand and it was possible she had returned home because of differences with her husband.

He also said she might have been depressed following the dissolution of her earlier marriage.
The court further noted that Lalita had left her matrimonial home nearly a month before her death and there had been no communication between her and the accused from then until her suicide.
“Influence or abetment would be far-fetched in such circumstances when there was no direct contact between the parties,” the court said.

It held that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of Rohit, Sunita and Vijay beyond reasonable doubt and acquitted them of all charges framed