The Port Blair sessions court had discharged the woman’s in-laws, accused of torturing her and demanding dowry from her parents, especially after she gave birth to a girl child. She killed her daughter and herself in 2021.

The high court directed the parents-in-law, brother-in-law and sister-in-law of the deceased woman to surrender before the trial court within four weeks.

Passing the judgment on an appeal by the prosecution on February 6, Justice Apurba Sinha Ray lamented, “Although we are happy and indeed rejoicing that our daughters have won the World Cup in Cricket recently, and they are also making remarkable achievements in different fields, sectors etc., the passing away of Rudrika at the age of one and half years reminds us that still we have to go a long way to achieve complete equality for our girl children.

Justice Ray observed that this court is “reminded of the celebrated proverbial passage quoted in Justice Krishna Iyer’s Essays in ‘Random Reflections’ : ‘No society is free until the last damsel in distress is free’.”

Justice Ray noted that, as per statements of witnesses, the deceased woman had allegedly been subjected to mental and physical torture.

The woman, Bhawna, died by suicide by hanging after strangulating her girl child in Port Blair while her husband was in his office on July 8, 2021.

The high court noted that the sessions judge has concluded that there are sufficient materials to frame charges only against the husband under sections 498 and 304 of the Indian Penal Code .

Setting aside the discharge of the four in-laws, Justice Ray observed that it appears that the sessions judge did not consider the statements of the vital witnesses – the relatives of the deceased woman.

The high court directed the sessions judge to take the in-laws in custody and enlarge them on bail if they are willing to furnish bail bonds in accordance with the law.

“Thereafter, he shall take proper steps for framing charges against the accused persons under proper sections of law,” Justice Ray directed.

The counsel appearing for the state drew the high court’s attention to the statements of several witnesses, showing that there is incriminating evidence against all the discharged accused persons. He stated that the deceased was subjected to physical and mental cruelty, which compelled her to kill herself after strangling her own baby.

The counsel for the state stated that the couple, who were married in 2018, had been residing in Port Blair due to the husband’s job posting there.

It was alleged that the in-laws had been making regular calls demanding additional dowry, and after the woman gave birth to a girl child, the torture increased with demands for ₹20 lakh to be paid by her parents as she had not given birth to a son.

The lawyer representing the four in-laws stated that most of the statements by the witnesses relate to the husband of the deceased and not against the in-laws.

He also pointed out that before the commission of the offence, there was no dowry demand from the side of the in-laws, and they were not even present in Andaman and Nicobar Island capital Port Blair, where marital discord allegedly took place between the husband and the wife.

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