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Dowry Torture: Life Sentence Cut in Suicide Case
6 Jul
Summary
- Calcutta HC reduced a life sentence to 10 years for dowry death.
- Court cited Supreme Court ruling on mandatory life sentences.
- Husband pressured wife for ancestral property and money.
In a significant ruling on Monday, the Calcutta High Court reduced a life sentence to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for a man convicted in the 2014 dowry death of his wife and daughter. The division bench acknowledged that suicide resulting from dowry-related torture is a frequent occurrence, citing a Supreme Court precedent that life imprisonment isn't automatic in all such cases.
The court upheld the conviction, recognizing that pressuring a wife to claim ancestral property can be construed as a dowry demand. The prosecution established that consistent financial demands from the husband led to the tragic suicides of his wife and their young daughter. The wife's family had provided dowry at the time of her marriage in 2010, but further demands for money and property followed.
The incident came to light in June 2014 when the wife's brother discovered her and his niece hanging. A dowry death case was filed against the husband and his parents. While the husband's sentence was commuted, his parents were acquitted by the High Court due to a lack of concrete evidence against them.
