Nainital, June 18 (HS). The court of District and Session Judge Subir Kumar has sentenced a husband guilty of harassing his wife by saying that she is barren before 6 years of marriage, to 7 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court has also made a strong comment in this case.
District Government Advocate Criminal Sushil Kumar Sharma said that on January 4, 2020, at 5:30 pm, the body of a woman was found in Sariyatal lake. The deceased was identified as 28-year-old Meeta Devi. She was married to Sanjay Kumar, son of Anand Kumar, resident of village Charkhet, 5 years, 9 months and 28 days ago. In this case, Meeta's brother gave a complaint in Mallital police station on January 5 and told that Meeta was married to Sanjay on March 7, 2014. Her mother-in-law Deepa Devi, father-in-law Anand Kumar, husband Sanjay Kumar, brother-in-law Ajay Kumar, Vijay and Santosh used to harass her for dowry and used to torture her by calling her barren for not having a child. They killed Meeta because of dowry. In the post-mortem, Meeta's death was found to be due to suffocation due to drowning in water. After investigation in this case, the deceased's husband Sanjay was arrested on July 13, 2020.
Here, on Tuesday, after hearing the arguments of the prosecution and defense lawyers, the court sentenced the accused Sanjay Kumar to 7 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10,000 under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code for compelling someone to commit suicide and an additional 6 months imprisonment in case of not paying the fine, as well as 3 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 5,000 under Section 498A for harassment for dowry and an additional 3 months imprisonment in case of not paying the fine. Along with this, under the Uttarakhand Victims of Crime Act, orders were also given to the District Legal Authority to provide the permissible assistance to the mother of the deceased.
In this case, the court has also commented that whether a woman has a child or not is a biological fact, for which the woman is not responsible. The accused did not provide any evidence that he got his wife treated by a specialist doctor for this. On the contrary, the accused humiliated and stigmatized his innocent wife by calling her barren. In such a situation, the wife was left with no option other than committing suicide. Therefore, it is necessary to punish the accused so that he can atone for his crime by staying in jail.