In Brief
A wife died by consuming poison in 1993, leaving a ten-month-old son and a twenty-week pregnancy. Her husband and parents-in-law were acquitted by the trial court of dowry-related cruelty and abetment of suicide charges. The High Court reversed the acquittal and convicted the husband under Sections 498-A (cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction, finding the trial court's acquittal based on perverse appreciation of evidence showing physical and mental harassment regarding dowry demands. The Court held that once cruelty is established, the statutory presumption of abetment under Section 113A of the Evidence Act may be invoked where the woman died within seven years of marriage, and the appellant failed to provide credible explanations for injuries on the deceased's body.
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