Karnataka HC upholds conviction of  actor Abhinaya in dowry case

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court confirmed the order of the trial court which convicted and sentenced actor Abhinaya, her brother Cheluvaraj and mother Jayamma to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of two years, a decade ago, for offences punishable under IPC Section 498A (subjecting a woman to cruelty). It also held Jayamma guilty of offences under Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act.

Modifying the trial court order, the high court ruled that Jayamma shall undergo a minimum of five years’ imprisonment under Section 3 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, as against the two-year sentence awarded by the trial court. All the sentences shall run concurrently, the court added.

Justice HB Prabhakara Sastry passed the order while partly allowing the appeal filed by complainant Lakshmidevi, and revision petition filed by the state government against their acquittal by the sessions court. The high court set aside the order passed by the sessions court acquitting Lakshmidevi’s mother-in-law Jayamma, brother-in-law Cheluvaraj and sister-in-law Abhinaya.

“The sessions court pronounced an erroneous judgment of acquittal of the accused from all offences,” said Justice Sastry. In relation to the complaint filed by Lakshmidevi in 2002, the trial court had on January 5, 2010, convicted her husband Srinivas, father-in-law Ramakrishna, Jayamma, Cheluvaraj and Abhinaya. The accused had filed an appeal before the sessions court, which had acquitted all the five accused on March 3, 2012. Lakshmidevi challenged the acquittal order in the high court.