Observing that the behaviour of an 82-year-old man 11 years ago towards his daughter-in-law who died by suicide, was not only ‘rude’ and ‘unsympathetic’, but also ‘inhuman’, a sessions court sentenced him to five years of rigorous imprisonment.
The court found Vasant Morkar guilty under Sec 498A of IPC (husband or relative of husband subjecting woman to cruelty) and under Sec 306 IPC (abetment of suicide).
The court said that the accused had routinely abused his 36-year-old daughter-in-law Priya Morkar in a drunken condition, threatened to kill her and thereby caused her mental harassment. Considering his treatment of Priya, it said it is just to consider a substantial sentence to him, but considered his age and sentenced him to a moderate punishment.
It noted that since one month prior to the incident, there was continuous abuse to her on his part. The court said it is of the opinion that he instigated and abetted her suicide.
It stated in its judgment that quarrels were started on food and basic needs of her 12-year-old child which would have been unbearable to any woman and still she appears to have borne it and resided in the same house.
The court noted the evidence of the son, who was 20 when he testified before the court and said that Morkar continued to quarrel with her and she was compelled to leave the ground floor house and take shelter in the gallery.
“It is not expected by any daughter-in-law that she would be given such inhuman treatment…and made to stay in the gallery of the house, that too for a year,” it remarked. The court also remarked on an incident a day prior to her death, in which Morkar had asked their tenant to lodge a complaint against Priya when they had a quarrel over a petty issue.
Mentioning adjustments she made in her in-laws' home, the court said that if she was getting such a reward of being insulted, it was tremendous humiliation of her on the part of the accused, which may be described as instigation for her to die by suicide. It said she would have felt humiliated by her own family members in front of a third person, a tenant.
