Hima Kohli JUDGMENT
Hima Kohli, J.
1. Ram Sahay Mahto, Appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 575/2012 (hereinafter referred to as A-1) and his mother Parvati Devi, Appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 574/2012 (hereinafter referred to as A-3) are aggrieved by the common judgment dated 1st May, 2007 passed by the High Court of Jharkhand upholding the judgment of conviction dated 20th September, 1999 Under Sections 304B and 201 read with Section 34 Indian Penal Code passed by the 5th Additional Sessions Judge, Giridih, sentencing them and Nema Mahto (father of A-1 and husband of A-3) to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of ten years and three years respectively on each count with both the sentences running concurrently. For the record, Nema Mahto had also preferred an appeal registered as SLP (Crl.) No. 6955 of 2009 which abated on his expiring during its pendency.
2. The case of the prosecution as culled out from the impugned judgment is that the informant, Bodhi Mahto (PW-3) had got his daughter, Fulwa Devi, married to Ram Sahay Mahto (A-1) in the year 1997 and within a few months of the marriage, A-1, his father Nema Mahto (since deceased) and mother, Parvati Devi (A-3) started to harass Fulwa Devi raising a demand for a sum of Rs. 20,000/- in cash and a Rajdoot Motor cycle. On expressing the inability of her parents to satisfy their demands, she was brutally assaulted and threatened that A-1 would be married off to another girl. Thereafter, on information being received that his daughter had gone missing from her matrimonial home, P.W. 3 rushed to her home but finding her traceless, he approached Birni Police Station and lodged a missing complaint. A case was registered by the local police on 8th August, 1997 against A-1, A-2 and A-3 being Case No. 71 of 1997, for the offences Under Sections 304/201/34 Indian Penal Code. On completion of the investigation, a charge-sheet was filed against all the three Accused for the aforesaid offences along with Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act.
3. Five days after the FIR was lodged by PW-3 on 13th August, 1997, a skeleton was recovered from the banks of river Barakar, at a distance of about one kilometer short of Village Sirmadih which was assumed to be that of Fulwa Devi. Charges were framed against the three Accused Under Sections 304B/