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Prayagraj, 04 October (HS). Allahabad High Court has said that punishment can be given on the basis of dying declaration only when the statement is duly verified. Punishment cannot be ordered on the basis of an unverified statement.
Hearing the appeal of Bhadohi's Sintu and others, the division bench of Justice Ashwini Kumar Mishra and Justice Dr. Gautam Chaudhary has canceled the sentence awarded to the accused.
The accused were convicted under sections 304 and 34 of the IPC for dowry death. Each was sentenced to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs 50,000.
The court said that the dying declaration given by the deceased was not verified by the prosecution nor was the testimony of the statement writer taken. The court said that the deceased had given a statement in the local dialect, which was translated by the writer. Therefore it was necessary to present him as a witness for cross-examination. The court said that the person who wrote the statement was not even called to testify. If he had been called, the defense would have got an opportunity to cross-examine him. By not doing so the defense was not given the opportunity to cross-examine.
According to the case, Meera Devi, wife of Pintu Gautam, resident of Miyankhanpur in Gyanpur police station area, got injured by burning on 18 October 2017. He died two days later. On the instructions of the SDM, Tehsildar Sunil Kumar arrived to take his statement. He says that Kanungo wrote the statement in front of him and the family members were present then. The trial court relied on Meera's dying declaration as well as other evidence. Tehsildar proved Meera's dying declaration. In the main examination, he said that before recording the dying declaration, the doctor had certified that Meera was mentally fit to give the statement.
Sessions Judge Bhadohi Gyanpur had pronounced the sentence on March 3, 2020. Meera's brothers Mahendra and Santosh had filed a report about the incident. It was alleged that due to a fight in the in-laws' house, the father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law poured kerosene on the sister and set her on fire. In her dying declaration, Meera had said that brother-in-law Akash and Sintu's son Hinchlal set her on fire at six in the evening.