Sabyasachi Mukherjee JUDGMENT
1. This is rather an unfortunate case where a marriage arranged and brought about through the intervention of common friends of the families of the bride and bridegroom though made a good start but ran into rough weather soon thereafter. The bride, Manju, entertained high hopes and aspirations and was not only hoping but was anxiously looking forward to a life full of mirth and merriment, mutual love and devotion between the two spouses. She appears to be an extremely emotional and sensitive girl at the very behest cherished ideal dreams to be achieved after her marriage, which was solemnised, on February 11, 1982 between her and the appellant, Sharad Birdhichand Sarda. Soon after the marriage, Manju left for her new marital home and started residing with the appellant in Takshila Apartments at Pune. Unfortunately, however, to her utter dismay and disappointment she found that the treatment of her husband and his parents towards her was cruel and harsh and her cherished dreams seem to have been shattered to pieces. Despite this shocking state of affairs she did not give in and kept hoping against hope and being of a very noble and magnanimous nature she was always willing to forgive and forget. As days passed by, despite her most laudable attitude she found that "things were not what they seem" and to quote her own words "she was treated in her husband's house as a labourer or as an unpaid maid-servant". She was made to do all sorts of odd jobs and despite her protests to her husband nothing seems to have happened. Even so, Manju had such a soft and gentle frame of mind as never to complain to her parents-in-law, not even to her husband except sometimes. On finding things unbearable, she did protest, and expressed her feelings in clearest possible terms, in a fit of utter desperation and frustration, that he hated her. Not only this, when she narrated her woeful tale to her sister Anju in the letters written to her (which would be dealt with in a later part of the judgment), she took the abundant care and caution of requesting Anju not to reveal her sad plight to her parents lest they, may get extremely upset, worried and distressed.
2. Ultimately, things came to such a pass that Manju was utterly disgusted and disheartened and she thought that a point of no-return had reached. At last, on the fateful morning of June 12, 1982, i.e., nearly four months after her marriage, she was found dead in her bed.
3. As to the cause of death, there appears to be a very serious divergence between the prosecution version and the defence case. The positive case of the prosecution was that as the appellant was not at all interested in her and had illicit intimacy with another girl, Ujvala, he practically discarded his wife and when he found things to be unbearable he murdered her between the night of June 11 and 12, 1982, and made a futile attempt to cremate the dead body. Ultimately, the matter was reported to the police. On the other hand, the plea of the defence was that while there was a strong possibility of Manju having been ill-treated and uncared for by her husband or her in-laws, being a highly sensitive and impressionate woman she committed suicide out of sheer depression and frustration arising from an emotional upsurge. This is the dominant issue which falls for decision by this Court.
4. Both the High Court and the trial Court rejected the theory of suicide and found that Manju was murdered by her husband by administering her a strong dose of potassium cyanide and r........