23 yrs after conviction, man acquitted

Almost 23 years after he was convicted for demanding dowry and abetting the suicide of his wife, a mother of two children, the Bombay High Court, holding that the prosecution failed to prove its case against him, acquitted the accused. Justice Sandeep K Shinde acquitted Borivali resident Sameer Joshi, who was sentenced to five years imprisonment for abetting the suicide of his wife Jyoti, in the year 1994. The court said, "I hold that, the prosecution having failed to prove cruelty had equally failed to prove the charge of abatement of suicide as framed against the accused herein."

As per the prosecution's case, the couple got married in the year 1990 and had two children. It is alleged that the accused had demanded Rs 10,000 from his wife, for starting a business. When her brothers and parents refused to give him the amount, he is alleged to have harassed the deceased by assaulting her regularly. Following, which, on July 16, 1994, she jumped from the seventh floor of their building and committed suicide.

During the trial, the prosecution examined several witnesses to bring home the guilt of the accused. However, in the appeal before the high court, it was brought to the notice that there were several discrepancies in the evidence of the witnesses and it was not clear, that Jyoti committed suicide because of the harassment meted out to her.