Cuttack: Nearly a decade after a woman’s death at her matrimonial home in Cuttack, a local court on Wednesday convicted her husband and her parents-in-law of dowry death and sentenced them to life imprisonment, while acquitting them of the charge of murder.First additional sessions judge Smruti Lekha Barik held Allarakha Khan (41), the victim’s husband, Dillip Khan (62), her father-in-law, and Jahara Bibi (56), her mother-in-law, guilty under Sections 498A (cruelty by husband or relatives), 304B (dowry death) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC, read with Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.“In the case at hand, the death was caused by throttling as suggested by the medical evidence. Further, nothing in the record has a hypothesis that the said throttling is accidental or otherwise. Further, it is a common course of human behaviour that when there was throttling, it is an intentional act unless otherwise suggested by facts and circumstances,” the judge concluded.The trial court directed each convict to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs 7,000.The three were, however, acquitted of the offence under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.Mustari Bibi, who married Allarakha Khan in Nov 2015, was found dead at her in-laws’ house under Lalbag police station limits on Feb 11, 2016, barely three months after her marriage. Her father lodged an FIR the same day, alleging that she had been subjected to torture for dowry and died as a consequence. The husband and his parents were arrested on Feb 12. While Allarakha remained in custody, his parents secured bail on Aug 30, 2016.The chargesheet was filed on June 9, 2016, charges were framed on Oct 21 that year, and the trial commenced on Aug 1, 2017.Holding that the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, the court said the accused acted in furtherance of their common intention. Additional public prosecutor Ranu Soved Kumar led the prosecution, examining 19 witnesses and relying on 52 exhibits, including documentary evidence.Explaining the basis for conviction, the trial court observed, “All the accused persons were involved and actively participated in the said crime… all the accused persons are involved with respect to demand of dowry from the family members of the deceased as well as subsequent acts towards non-fulfilment of their demand after the marriage of the deceased with the accused Allarakha Khan.”
