Gujarat High Court
State Of Gujarat vs Devendrakumar Babulal Agrawal on 21 November, 2025
Author: Gita Gopi
Bench: Gita Gopi
NEUTRAL CITATION
R/CR.A/528/1999 JUDGMENT DATED: 21/11/2025
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 528 of 1999
FOR APPROVAL AND SIGNATURE:
HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE GITA GOPI
and
HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE HEMANT M. PRACHCHHAK
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Approved for Reporting Yes No
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STATE OF GUJARAT
Versus
DEVENDRAKUMAR BABULAL AGRAWAL & ORS.
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Appearance:
MR. ROHAN H. RAWAL APP for the Appellant(s) No. 1
MR NACHIKET D MEHTA(6529) for the Opponent(s)/Respondent(s) No.
1,2,3,4,5
MS.RIYA P. NAVIN(14294) for the Opponent(s)/Respondent(s) No. 1,2,3,4,5
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CORAM:HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE GITA GOPI
and
HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE HEMANT M.
PRACHCHHAK
Date : 21/11/2025
ORAL JUDGMENT
(PER : HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE GITA GOPI)
1. The appeal has been filed by the State under
Section 378 (1) (2) of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
(hereinafter referred to as 'Cr.PC'). The State
challenges the judgment and order of acquittal passed
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by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Banaskatha at
Palanpur in Sessions Case No. 41 of 1998 dated
07.01.1999. The trial was against the five accused
under Section 304B, 306, 498A of the Indian Penal Code
(hereinafter referred to as 'I.P.C').
2. The daughter of the complainant Mamtaben took her
life by committing suicide. As per the record, the
death was by hanging. Learned APP Mr. Rohan H. Rawal
submitted that the learned Trial Court Judge had
acquitted the husband, the parents-in-law as well as
the sisters-in-law. The evidence of the father clearly
proves cruelty and demand of dowry which is
corroborated by the brother. The marriage span was one
and a half year and, thus, learned APP Mr. Rawal stated
that the case should have been evaluated on the basis
of the presumption, required to be drawn under Section
113-A and 113-B of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
Learned APP Mr. Rawal stated that the ill-treatment in
the matrimonial house was proved. The learned Judge
ought not to have relied upon the minor omissions and
contradictions, rather should have examined the case on
the basis of the material evidence which was recorded.
3. Referring to the charge, learned APP Mr. Rawal
submitted that the specific instance of the cruelty by
the in-laws had been recorded by the learned Trial
Court Judge and the accused were well aware of the
charge framed against them, however, no evidence has
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been brought on record to rebut the presumption against
the accused. Mr. Rawal submitted that the cruelty was
within the period between 30.05.1996 to 02.10.1997,
where the accused alleged and raised a dispute for
bringing insufficient dowry in the form of cash,
clothes and ornaments. Mr. Rawal stated that accused
no. 1 - the husband used to beat her and with the
physical cruelty in abetment with the others, had also
subjected the deceased to mental cruelty. Referring to
the incident dated 02.10.1997 of death, Mr. Rawal
submitted that two months prior when the deceased had
visited the parental home and had come back with an
amount of Rs. 6,000/- cash, the accused harassed her
for bringing lesser amount, and being fed up of the
harassment, she decided to take her own life.
4. Referring to the charge, learned APP Mr. Rawal
submitted that on 02.10.1997, in the night hours
between 9 to 2.30 of the wee hours of 03.10.1997, the
victim took her own life by hanging herself to the
ceiling. Mr. Rawal submitted that though definite
evidence was on record for the charge of 304B, 306 and
498A read with Section 114 of the I.P.C, the learned
Trial Court Judge has materially erred in passing the
judgment of acquittal.
5. Learned APP Mr. Rawal further submitted that the
documents at Exh.9 was produced by the public
prosecutor with about 37 documents. The chit was found
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in the room of the deceased which was sent for expert
opinion. The cause of death had also been proved. The
Investigating Officer has given the evidence with
regard to the documentary evidence as well as the facts
that could be found during the investigation. Thus, Mr.
Rawal urged to allow the appeal and set aside the
judgment of acquittal.
6. After hearing the learned APP, we peruse the
deposition of the witnesses as well as the documentary
evidence. The cause of death recorded in the postmortem
report at Exh.26 is violent asphyxia due to hanging.
The doctor was examined to prove the autopsy report. A
separate cause of death was given on 03.10.1997 which
was produced at Exh.27.
7. The father had been examined as PW-2 - Nandulal
Rameshwarlal Agrawal. In his deposition could state
that his daughter Mamta was married to Devendrakumar
Babulal Agrawal - accused no. 1 on 30.05.1996. Out of
the matrimonial life, the couple had a son. During one
and a half year of matrimonial life, the daughter had
visited three to five times their house. After the
birth of the son, she had come once in the month of
Ashadh Sud and thereafter, in the month of Shravan Sud,
she had returned back to her matrimonial house. The
father who alleged about the dowry demand stated that,
as per the customs on the birth of the son, he himself
had gone to give clothes, ornaments and toys and after
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three or three and a half month, Mamta had come to
their house and had informed him that the things which
were given to them were insufficient as per the mother-
in-law and the sisters-in-law and daughter had asked
him to give cash instead of clothes. The deposition
would clarify that the clothes which were given were
not liked by the in-laws. Daughter had also stated that
the in-laws probably wanted her to wear the clothes
that were given by them. Therefore, instead, she was
asking for money. She came with Rs. 6,000/- cash and
according to the complainant, that amount was found
insufficient by the mother-in-law as well as the
sisters-in-law. To further state about the cruelty, the
father stated that on 30.09.1997 when he had gone to
the matrimonial place at Ambaji, the daughter raised
the grievance asking him as to why she was married to
this place, where she was facing harassment from the
mother-in-law as well as the sisters-in-law and even
the husband, who were all taunting her. The father also
alleged that the husband would come late at night in an
intoxicating state and with the chappals would beat his
daughter, the life of his daughter had been made
unbearable.
7.1 The report of Police Inspector, Ambaji Police
Station is produced by learned APP Mr. Rawal. The
respondent No.2 - Babulal Gulzrilal Agrawal died on
24.03.2024. The report is produced with the copy of the
death certificate along with the statement of the
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Secretary, Ambaji Gram Panchayat. The same is ordered
to be taken on record. The name of respondent No.2 be
deleted from the cause title as abated.
8. The death was informed as suicide committed by
hanging herself. The Investigating Officer had observed
the dead body from the ceiling and necessary procedures
were undertaken.
9. In Vadde Rama Rao v. State of Andhra Pradesh, 1990
Cr LJ 1666, it was observed that the husband or any of
his relative could be guilty of the offence only if he
or she directly participated in the actual commission
of the offence. This contention was rejected by the
Andhra Pradesh High Court. It observed that in its real
import, section 304B of the Indian Penal Code would be
applicable if cruelty or harassment was inflicted by
the husband on any of his relative for, or in
connection with demand for dowry, immediately preceding
the death by bodily injury or by burning. In short, she
should have died in abnormal circumstances within seven
years of the marriage. In such circumstances the
husband or the relative, as the case may be, will be
deemed to have caused her death and will be liable to
punishment.
10. In the case of Raj Rani (Smt.) Vs. State (Delhi
Administration), [(2000) 10 SCC 662], it was observed
by the Hon'ble Supreme Court as under:
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"4. We have gone through the entire writing
contained in the suicide note. It makes a
serious castigation against her husband for
being an addict to narcotic drugs. Then she
made a general allegation against her mother-
in-law and in a lesser degree towards the
appellant. But unfortunately she did not
advert to any concrete instance which can be
termed as cruelty as defined in Section 498-A
of the Penal Code, 1860. The utterances said
to have been made by the appellant towards the
deceased were to her chagrin and she had taken
them very seriously and in the suicide note
she described such utterances as not worthy of
reproduction.
5. It is not enough that the deceased felt
those words hurting, it must be subjected to
judicial scrutiny and the Court must be in a
position to hold that those words were
sufficiently hurting enough as to amount to
"cruelty" falling within the parameters fixed
in Section 498-A of the Penal Code, 1860. The
area remains grey and vague. Not a single word
said to have been spoken by the appellant as
against the deceased had been put on record by
the deceased in the suicide note in spite of
the fact that the said note is a very lengthy
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letter running into several paragraphs. The
tenor and language of the suicide note would
reflect that she was not an illiterate lady.
As the Court is rendered helpless to judge
whether the words which the deceased heard
from the appellant would amount to cruelty, it
is far from possible for the criminal court to
hold that she is guilty of the offence of
cruelty as envisaged in the section. It is
also to be pointed out that the deceased did
not mention a single deed which the appellant
would have done against her. All that is said
against the appellant was that she spoke
something which she took as objectionable.
11. In the case of Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi v. State
of Karnataka, (2024) SCC OnLine SC 3541, this Court
observed that discord and differences in domestic life
are quite common in society. Commission of suicide
largely depends upon the mental state of the victim.
Until and unless some guilty intention on the part of
the accused is established, it is ordinarily not
possible to convict the accused for an offence under
Section 306 I.P.C.
12. The most important striking fact which has been
observed and examined by the learned Trial Court Judge
is about the chit which was left by the deceased. The
deceased in her chit, in her own writing, had stated
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that she has no complaint against anyone, she was fed
up of her life and, therefore, was dying. She expressed
her regret to her husband and had asked to take care of
the child. She had also advised the husband to have a
second marriage, but by placing her child in Mount Abu
Hostel, instructing him not to send the child to Surat
or other place. She had further recorded in the chit
that her ornaments, which were given by them as well as
received from her parents, about 65 tolas, she had
asked to put it in the locker in the name of the child
or instead, to place the money in the bank equivalent
to the value of the gold.
13. The learned Trial Court Judge while examining this
fact was of the opinion that the chit which was written
does not disclose any fact of any cruelty or
harassment. The cause of death was that she was fed up
of her life. The handwriting expert was also examined.
The opinion of the handwriting expert became very
relevant with the chit, which was produced in evidence
of the deceased, was found to be in her own
handwriting. The expert report dated 31.01.1998 at
Exh.65, compared the admitted and the disputed
handwriting and found that there was no sign of any
imitation or tracing and that there was no significant
difference. The expert in his deposition has affirmed
the writing of the deceased which was in Hindi.
14. The allegation which the complainant suggests
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would not corroborate with the chit, which was at
Exh.52 considered to be as suicide note, where the
deceased has referred to about 65 tolas of ornaments,
she has not alleged of any cruelty or harassment by the
accused. In view of this fact, when no primary evidence
comes on record of any harassment or cruelty or even of
dowry demands, there would not be any cause for
rebuttal.
15. The judgment of Chandrappa v. State of Karnataka , (2007) 4 SCC
415 : (2007) 2 SCC (Cri) 325, would be relevant to be mentioned
since the judgment lays down the general principles for the
consideration of the acquittal appeals. The Supreme Court
has held thus:
(1) An appellate court has full power to review,
reappreciate and reconsider the evidence upon
which the order of acquittal is founded.
(2) The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 puts no
limitation, restriction or condition on exercise
of such power and an appellate court on the
evidence before it may reach its own conclusion,
both on questions of fact and of law.
(3) Various expressions, such as, "substantial
and compelling reasons", "good and sufficient
grounds", "very strong circumstances",
"distorted conclusions", "glaring mistakes",
etc. are not intended to curtail extensive
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powers of an appellate court in an appeal
against acquittal. Such phraseologies are more
in the nature of "flourishes of language" to
emphasise the reluctance of an appellate court
to interfere with acquittal than to curtail the
power of the court to review the evidence and to
come to its own conclusion.
(4) An appellate court, however, must bear in
mind that in case of acquittal, there is double
presumption in favour of the accused. Firstly,
the presumption of innocence is available to him
under the fundamental principle of criminal
jurisprudence that every person shall be
presumed to be innocent unless he is proved
guilty by a competent court of law. Secondly,
the accused having secured his acquittal, the
presumption of his innocence is further
reinforced, reaffirmed and strengthened by the
trial court.
(5) If two reasonable conclusions are possible
on the basis of the evidence on record, the
appellate court should not disturb the finding
of acquittal recorded by the trial court.
16. In the case of Darshan Singh v. State of
Punjab, (2010) 2 SCC 333, it has been observed as
under :-
" In a case of acquittal, if the trial court's
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view is a possible or plausible view, then the
Appellate Court or the High Court would not be
justified in interfering with it. It is the
settled legal position that there is presumption
of innocence and that presumption is further
fortified with the acquittal of the accused by
the trial court. The Appellate Court or the High
Court would not be justified in reversing the
judgment of acquittal unless it comes to a clear
conclusion that the judgment of the trial court
is utterly perverse and, on the basis of the
evidence on record, no other view is plausible
or possible than the one taken by the Appellate
Court or the High Court."
17. In view of the observations made herein above and
the principle of law laid down in the referred
judgments, we do not find any reason to interfere with
the findings observed by the learned Trial Court Judge.
In the result, the appeal stands dismissed. Record and
Proceedings be sent back to the concerned Court
forthwith.
(GITA GOPI,J)
(HEMANT M. PRACHCHHAK,J)
PARMAR KRISH/4
