Husband, mother-in-law get 10 years in jail for dowry death of woman

But it failed to meet the dowry demands of the groom's family, due to which the woman was subjected to mental and physical torture, chief public prosecutor, Alipore District Court, Radha Kanta Mukherjee, submitted. Since her maternal home was in the same locality, Jakina would visit the house on some pretext and had told her relatives about her ordeal, he submitted before the court.

A South 24 Parganas district court on Wednesday sentenced a man and his mother to 10 years in jail for dowry death of his wife within five months of marriage. After finding Hajan Mollah alias Jiko and his mother Sonwara Bewa guilty of causing the dowry death of Jakina Begum in March 2010, Third Additional District Judge Partha Pratim Chakraborti, sentenced them to 10 years in prison.

Each of them were also sentenced to one year in prison and slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 for dowry-related torture. Both the sentences will run concurrently. The incident had taken place at Rabindranagar in the southern suburbs of the city.

The victim's family had gifted several items to Mollah at the time of the arranged marriage. But it failed to meet the dowry demands of the groom's family, due to which the woman was subjected to mental and physical torture, chief public prosecutor, Alipore District Court, Radha Kanta Mukherjee, submitted.

Since her maternal home was in the same locality, Jakina would visit the house on some pretext and had told her relatives about her ordeal, he submitted before the court. Suspecting something unusual with the behaviour of her husband, Jakina's parents visited Mollah's house and found her charred to death in a room, Mukherjee said.

The door of the room, in which she was found dead with 90 per cent burns, was found to be open, he said. Jakina's parents lodged a complaint of murder and dowry demands against Hajan Mollah and his parents at Rabindranagar police station.

They were tried for dowry death (section 304B of IPC) and coercion and torture on dowry demands (section 498A of IPC) following such prayer by the chief public prosecutor since the death occurred within five momths of marriage. During trial, which commenced in 2012, the father of Hajan Mollah died, leaving him and his mother as accused in the case.

Following trial, during which 13 witnesses were examined, the court found Hajan Mollah and his mother guilty on August 24..