The Uttarakhand High Court acquitted a man who had earlier been convicted by a lower court in a dowry death case. The man, identified as Ramesh Chandra from Almora, had been sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and fined Rs 2,000 by the trial court following the death of his wife, Munni Devi, within a year of their marriage.
The case was heard by a single-judge bench of Justice Pankaj Purohit, who acquitted Chandra due to lack of sufficient evidence. According to the original allegations made by Munni Devi’s relatives, she died under mysterious circumstances, and they held Chandra responsible.
They claimed that whenever she returned to her parental home, she complained about harassment by her in-laws and stated that her husband had been demanding Rs 1.25 lakh in cash and 40 grams of gold as dowry.
During the High Court hearing, Chandra defended himself by stating that he had been falsely implicated. He claimed his wife had been suffering from an illness and had epileptic seizures.
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According to him, she took poison and died by suicide due to her medical condition, not because of any harassment. He also contended that he had not been informed about her health condition prior to the marriage, and this critical detail was overlooked during the initial trial.
Chandra argued that no proper hearing or consideration had been given to his wife's illness in the lower court proceedings. Taking these points into account and considering the gravity of the charges, the High Court concluded that the evidence presented was insufficient to support the conviction and overturned the lower court’s verdict, thereby acquitting Ramesh Chandra of all charges.
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