In Brief
Rukmini Bai, a newly married woman, died from severe burn injuries within 17 months of marriage to the appellant, a police constable addicted to alcohol. The trial court acquitted the appellant, but the High Court reversed the acquittal and convicted him under Sections 498A and 302 IPC for dowry-related cruelty and murder. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction. The credible testimony of the deceased's parents and close relatives established repeated demands for money (₹4,000–5,000) and ill-treatment by the appellant. Circumstantial evidence—kerosene oil on the body, a bottle in the room, broken bangles, and burn injuries on the upper body—proved the appellant poured kerosene oil and set his wife on fire, not an accidental kitchen fire as he claimed. The Court rejected the defence's accident theory and dismissed the appeal.
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