Praveen Kumar Policing The Police > Dowry Death

INVESTIGATION OF DOWRY DEATH CASES

Nature created

woman different from man to her disadvantage to

bear male atrocities unless and until society in an enlightened mood comes to her rescue. Atrocities against women are covered under various sections of Indian Penal Code and a few special laws. Of these, dowry death cases have become sensational topical issues with public being highly sensitised to the menance. Investigation of dowry death cases has special links with the science of forensic medicine because of the special nature of the investigation taking place within the family circle without eye witnesses or even nonpartisan witnesses. Inexact definitions and certain anomalies of Acts and Rules concerning Dowry death investigation render investigation difficile. The loopholes Need to be corrected. Marriage as the second birth in a girl’s life brings Adaptation problems with it. An integrated approach to these problems Alone can bring deliverance to the fairer sex of the human genre.

Nature created women different from men with a definite purpose. Balance is stillness and stagnation; imbalance is motion and progress. Nature designed life and action by means of the imbalance brought about in the traits of men and women. In the process, women find themselves at the receiving end. They ended up as the weaker half

of society by their very nature and are naturally handicapped in a world of men, by men, for men. In a world where strength commands charity and weakness receives cruelty, a woman is at a great disadvantage. She has suffered all types of cruelty and humiliation all along centuries with patience and in silence. This part of woman is symbolised in tradition by calling her as the Mother Earth who bears all sufferings. The cardinal principle of the survival of the fittest applies to the weak, natural attributes of woman which renders her less fit for survival than man. She must live at his mercy and on his charity, silently bearing all his atrocities unless and until society in an enlightened mood comes to her rescue.

The immane approach of the stronger world to its weaker counterparts has to be countered with strong arm methods of the state power. In an enlightened age such as this people in public life are sufficiently sensitized to this

issue and more and more

legislation come up to stop stronger people from riding over the weak and meek. India too has several legislations that have become Acts to protect its women folk.

Atrocities against women in India are mainly rape and unnatural offences, dowry deaths, abduction and kidnapping for various purposes and outraging their modesty apart from minor acts like various marriage offences, dowry and other harassments, insulting the modesty, causing miscarriage without

consent and prostitution.

Most of these

offences are punishable under the Indian Penal Code : in sections from 375 to 377, for rape and unnatural, offences, abduction and kidnapping girls for various purposes being

punishable in sections from 364 to 369, offences related to marriage being subjected to penal provisions in sections from 493 to 498, outraging the modesty of a woman in section 354 and insulting the modesty

in section 509 being offences. Section 314

makes causing miscarriage without women’s consent, a punishable act. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 1983 (No.43/83) provided for in camera trial of rape cases and also enlarged the scope of rape cases by placing the burden of proving innocence on the accused persons apart from making penal sections more mordant, particularly in cases of custodial rapes by public servants. The Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and girls Act 1956 with the

Suppression

on Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls

(Amendment) Act, 1986 and rules framed by states u/s 23 of the Act deal with offences relating to immoral traffic in women and girls.

Dowry death cases have become sensational public being highly

topical issues these days with the

sensitised to the menace of the offences with the unfortunate

swelchie of cruel practices and circumstances deliver an innocent girl at death’s door. All institutions of society including the government, press, women’s organisations, judiciary and police handle dowry death cases on a special footing. Each such case outrages the patience of thinking people and rouses passion and outcry against the perpetrators of the offence. The police too give special importance to the investigation of these cases and closely supervises the investigation process. In the circumstances, an insight into the investigation of dowry death cases and proper understanding of the spectrum of challenges posed and how they are met is in the interests of both the public and investigating officers. It must be borne in mind that no investigation can succeed without

public cooperation. And the public, particularly people aggrieved by such unfortunate incidents, can contribute to the progress of investigation of they have knowledge of its due process. With this in view,

salient features and parameters of dowry death

investigation are outlined in this work.

Investigation of dowry death cases has special links with the science of forensic medicine because of the figuratively called

special nature of the investigation. Dowry deaths are

bedroom deaths.

In most

cases, no outsider including the

investigating officer can have any knowledge about the circumstances and events that led to the death. Secondly, the offencers being the custodians of the dead body and the scene for many hours after the death till they volunteer to make its occurrence known, have all the time in the world to eliminate or tamper with any clues. In the circumstances, the investigating officer is completely at the mercy of medical experts to interpret the cause of death.

Often, the mode of death noticed, be it asphyxia, drowning, or burning, may prove to be post-mortal ;ipso facto suggesting homicide in place of suicide. Only forensic medicine can provide decisive proof to the investigating officer.

The success of the investigating officer in investigating dowry death cases largely depends upon forensic medicine experts. Sans proper briefing from the latter, the investigating officer may not realise the importance of noting the profusion of bleeding or marks of inflammation in deciding whether wound is antemortal or not. Again, in a

poisoning case, the investigating officer may overlook the importance of recording the time when the deceased ate last, how many hours thereafter the first symptoms of poisoning were noticed, what were those symptoms and how many hours thereafter death occurred. Thus, the interaction between the investigating officer and forensic medicine experts is crucial to give the investigation a direction.

Dowry death investigation has to address certain problems in the field in collecting evidence and examining witnesses.

These offences take place within the family circle. Sometimes, though blood relatives of the deceased volunteer evidence in the reconciliation would be the normal tendency.

heat of trauma, a gradual

Therefore, sound evidence is rarely

forthcoming and difficult to sustain. Dowry death being an offshoot of the relationship of wife and husband and veiled in a shroud of secrecy, even the parents of the deceased may be unaware of the hardships the deceased underwent at the hands of her husband and his relatives in the process of the dowry death.

If the investigating officer is lucky, he may succeed in collecting some, evidence of cruelty. The next stage at which he would find himself would be the girl’s death. There would be an absolute void in-between with no clues or evidence of what happened or no eyewitnesses to vouch for that , Clues on the dead body and surroundings are likely to be tampered with by the offenders.

Investigations are witness-oriented. A dowry death case being primarily a family affair, independent witnesses refuse to involve themselves. And partisan witnesses are too polarised to be credible.

It is in these circumstances that investigating officers have to trace witnesses, conduct purposive examinations and undertake directional recording of statements after proper analysis of the offence and likely charges.

The dowry death cases are offences primarily under central Acts namely the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 with its amendments of 1984 and 1986 and certain sections of the Criminal Procedure code, 1973 as amended by Criminal Law ( 2nd Amendment) Act, 1983. In spite of attempts during amendments to avoid ambiguities in some sections of the earlier Acts, it is patent that there are still several louche terms that need interpretation by the court. The term ‘ in connection with the marriage’ while defining dowry in section 2 of the Dowry Prohibition Act is unspecific about the flexibility of the word ‘ connection’ and gives way for its subjective interpretations as well as that of the term dowry. ‘ The same word ‘ connection’ brings in a similar impression while defining ‘ dowry death’ in Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code and Section 113B of the Indian Evidence Act while declaring ‘ in connection with demand of dowry’ ipso facto rendering the incatenation between the offence of dowry death and dowry’ demand uncertain and open for discussion. In the same sections, the phrase ‘ soon before her death’ raises the question, how soon before? Similarly, the words ‘ relative of her husband’ that figure in Section 498A of the Criminal Procedure Code, Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code

and Section 113A of the Indian Evidence Act in no way provide exactly what is intended to be defined; the scope of the words there is too vast and includes even the blood relatives of the deceased as they are also relatives of the husband after the marriage. Another important term that defies full comprehension is ‘ likely to drive’ in Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, where the word ‘like’ by its very meaning is indefinitive and open for subjective interpretation. The scope for divergent interpretations of these terms in the comparatively new acts do create problems during investigation of the cases until convention assigns them definite meanings.

Law by sections 113 (A) and 113(B) of the Indian Evidence Act relieves the investigation of cases of death of girls within seven years of their marriage from the special nature of difficulties by the reason of the crime being committed in the intimate circle of the offenders. The law provides that the court trying the case may presume that the accused persons committed the offence if it is proved that the victim was subjected to cruelty by the accused persons inter alia. The presumptions made easy the investigation of these otherwise impossible cases.

While the presumptions under section 113(B) of the Indian Evidence Act is applicable to prove dowry death cases u/s 304 (B) IPC, section 113 (A) is applicable to prove abetment to commit suicide u/s 306 IPC within seven years of the marriage. The latter presumption benefits investigation of cases while a girl commits suicide under harassment for reason other than dowry also by her husband or in-laws within seven years of the marriage while the benefit is available for cases of suicide under the same

circumstances and homicide for dowry reasons under the same circumstances. This renders investigation of cases of homicide of girls by husband and in-laws within seven years of marriage which poses the same difficulties as suicide cases under the

same

circumstances an impossible task and there are any number of such homicide cases that were acquitted which would have been convicted by the benefit of the presumptions u/s 113(A) of the Indian Evidence Act if they were suicide cases. Amendment of concerned laws may be necessary to avoid this loophole in law.

If

the investigating officer adequately

employs his common sense and

intelligence during the preliminary stage of the investigation while examining the dead body and the scene and collects all incriminating clues and evidences without restricting himself to the apparent cause of the death, no criminal can fool him and deflect him from the right line of investigation.

Marriage is often called the second birth in a girl’s life; it brings an entire metamorphosis in the form and contents of her life and in the process exposes her to inopinate adaptation problems. It is an irony of nature and social customs that it is the girl who is delicate in nature rather than the man who is selected for this difficile gauntlet of transformation in the process of familial

socialising.

Per case, the gentle and

amenable character of the female breed expose her to the natural selection for the purpose. In the process, death of the most unfortunate of them by felo de se or homicide because of the grind of the circumstances has become an unfortunate phenomenon. Dowry is only one though primus interpares among various immane manifestations of

adjustment problems to which the tender psyche of a young girl is exposed after her marriage. An integrated approach to all these symptoms of adjustment problems to which a girl is suddenly exposed while her persona is yet unprepared to meet the gauntlets alone can bring deliverance to the fairer sex of the human genre. The entire process of social legislations and their enforcement is only a distant link in the whole catena of luctation warranted to achieve this end.