By Shibu Thomas, TNN | Feb 5, 2013, 02.09 AM IST
MUMBAI: Nearly 23 years after a city resident set herself ablaze within a couple of months of marriage, the Bombay high court sentenced her husband to three years in prison for ill-treating her because she did not bring him a wristwatch in dowry and for driving her to suicide.
Justice R C Chavan refused to show any leniency to the accused, Manohar Patil, who had urged for sympathy on account of the two decades that had passed since the incident and the new life that he had built for himself.
"(The prosecutor) is right in submitting that this is a case of death of a woman within one month and some odd days of her marriage and, therefore, reducing sentence would amount to showing misplaced sympathy," Justice Chavan said.
The defence's plea that Patil's punishment be reduced to the six months that he had already served in prison and a fine was rejected by the court. The high court gave Patil six weeks to surrender.
But the court set aside Patil's conviction in 1993 by the trial court on the charge of causing dowry death, which would have sent him to prison for seven years. The court agreed with advocate Samir Vaidya, Patil's counsel, that there was no evidence of dowry death.
The victim got married to Patil on May 13, 1990. On June 25, 1990, she set herself ablaze. Police investigations showed that she had told her brother about the ill-treatment she faced because the dowry demand of a wristwatch had not been fulfilled.
On an earlier occasion, she was injured after Patil allegedly smashed her face on the kitchen platform and burnt her with matchsticks. The court said there was enough proof that Patil had ill-treated his wife for the watch and driven her to suicide.
Link: 23 years on, man jailed for driving wife to suicide
Justice R C Chavan refused to show any leniency to the accused, Manohar Patil, who had urged for sympathy on account of the two decades that had passed since the incident and the new life that he had built for himself.
"(The prosecutor) is right in submitting that this is a case of death of a woman within one month and some odd days of her marriage and, therefore, reducing sentence would amount to showing misplaced sympathy," Justice Chavan said.
The defence's plea that Patil's punishment be reduced to the six months that he had already served in prison and a fine was rejected by the court. The high court gave Patil six weeks to surrender.
But the court set aside Patil's conviction in 1993 by the trial court on the charge of causing dowry death, which would have sent him to prison for seven years. The court agreed with advocate Samir Vaidya, Patil's counsel, that there was no evidence of dowry death.
The victim got married to Patil on May 13, 1990. On June 25, 1990, she set herself ablaze. Police investigations showed that she had told her brother about the ill-treatment she faced because the dowry demand of a wristwatch had not been fulfilled.
On an earlier occasion, she was injured after Patil allegedly smashed her face on the kitchen platform and burnt her with matchsticks. The court said there was enough proof that Patil had ill-treated his wife for the watch and driven her to suicide.
Link: 23 years on, man jailed for driving wife to suicide
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