‘No one responsible’ in death note not enough to scrap dowry case: Karnataka HC

The court said it is rather unfortunate that the age-old menace of dowry death still exists in society.
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BENGALURU: Noting that mere mention in the suicide note that nobody is responsible for the death is not a ground to quash the proceedings when evidence categorically points to dowry harassment, the Karnataka High Court refused to quash proceedings against a victim’s husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law.

Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order, dismissing a petition filed by the victim’s husband Vikas CV and her in-laws Savitha and Vasanth Kumar, residing at Nagasandra in the city. The petition questioned the case registered against them with the Peenya police by the victim’s father Ramakrishna Reddy from Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh.

The victim, R Roja, married Vikas in 2019. A few months after marriage, the relationship is said to have been strained. Barely 13 months of marriage, the victim died by suicide. On October 24, 2020, the victim’s father filed the complaint of dowry harassment.

The court said it is rather unfortunate that the age-old menace of dowry death still exists in society. Though there has been progress on every front, cases of this kind which project the menace of dowry death are regressive. The offences are the ones punishable under Sections 498A and 304B of the IPC. Therefore, merely based upon the death note of the victim, which at all times would require evidence of circumstances in which the suicide happens or the death note is scribed, quashing of the proceedings under Section 482 of the CrPC is not a course available to this court, the court said.

The counsel for the petitioners vehemently contended that the victim while committing suicide had left the death note, in which she blamed none but herself. The advocate contended that neither the offence under Section 498-A nor 304-B of the IPC or even the offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act is met in the case at hand, he argued.

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