Mother-son duo convicted in 2016 dowry death case

New Delhi: A court has convicted a man and his mother in a dowry death case after a decade, finding that the woman was subjected to sustained dowry-related harassment, including physical abuse and demands for an additional Rs 50,000, until days before she had killed herself within seven years of her marriage.Additional sessions judge Harvinder Singh convicted Jitender and his mother Rambati of charges of dowry death and cruelty in connection with the demise of Pooja.The court noted that the prosecution had established that the harassment was continued throughout Pooja's married life. "The prosecution has also been able to establish that few days prior to the date of death of deceased, the accused side has been subjecting the deceased to torture/harassment/cruelty for more dowry... and gave beatings to her to bend deceased and her family-members to their demands of dowry," the court observed in its May 30 order.The judge held that the prosecution had established that the victim was subjected to torture “right from the beginning of her marriage till a few days prior to date of her death”.According to the prosecution, Pooja married Jitender in June 2011 and died by hanging at her matrimonial home in East Gokalpur on Aug 21, 2016. Her family alleged that dowry demands began before the marriage, with Jitender objecting to being gifted a Bajaj Discover motorcycle at the tilak ceremony and demanding a costlier model, leading to a payment of Rs 10,000. He later allegedly sought an Apache motorcycle, for which Pooja's father paid Rs 50,000, while Rambati demanded Rs 1 lakh for her daughter's marriage.Pooja had complained to her family about the continued harassment when she visited her parental home on Raksha Bandhan, just days before her death, the court noted.On the defence argument that no injuries were found in the MLC report, the judge said physical abuse in matrimonial homes didn’t necessarily leave visible marks. "Even giving slaps at back side of head or some other small physical harm in similar fashion would imply beatings," the court said.Rejecting another defence claim that Pooja was depressed because of her sister's failed marriage proposal, the court said the accused had failed to rebut the statutory presumption of dowry death.