ORDER : S. Ratnavel Pandian, J. The appellant, Rajnesh Tandon, has preferred this criminal appeal, on grant of leave, questioning the correctness of the judgment of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana dated 26-2-1992 made in Criminal Appeal No. 311-SB of 1989 dismissing the appeal and confirming the judgment of the trial court convicting the appellant under Section 304B Indian Penal Code and sentencing him to 7 years' rigorous imprisonment and also imposing a fine of Rs. 20,000 with the usual default clause. 2. The appellant is none other than the husband of the deceased-Anita who was aged 24 at the time of her death. In respect of the death of the deceased-Anita, this appellant, his father, mother and sister-Ashu were put up for trial for offences punishable under Sections 304-B, 498-A and 306 Indian Penal Code. It is not in dispute that during the pendency of the case before the trial court, the father and mother of the appellant committed suicide. Therefore, the trial went on only as against the appellant and his sister Ashu. The trial court acquitted Ashu but convicted the appellant only for the offence under Section 304B Indian Penal Code and acquitted the appellant of the other charges under Sections 498-A and 306 Indian Penal Code. The factual matrix of the case which led to the filing of this appeal can be stated as follows. 3. The appellant married the deceased-Anita who was a double graduate on 24-10-1987. After the marriage, admittedly both of them were leading a very happy conjugal relationship and in fact they had gone for honeymoon to Kashmir. At the time of the incident in question, Anita was pregnant by fourteen weeks. While it was so, Anita is said to have committed suicide on 24-2-1988 in her marital home in which the four persons who were arrayed as accused were living with the deceased. It is positively established that the deceased-Anita died by consuming poison, namely, Aluminium Phosphate which is usually used as rat poison and insecticide. The cause of death is spoken to by PW 1, the Medical Officer who conducted the post-mortem on the dead body of the deceased. It is positively established that the deceased-Anita died by consuming poison, namely, Aluminium Phosphate which is usually used as rat poison and insecticide. The cause of death is spoken to by PW 1, the Medical Officer who conducted the post-mortem on the dead body of the deceased. On receipt of the information of this incident, PW 15, the Sub-Inspector of Police registered a case on the basis of a complaint given by the father of the girl PW 4, held inquest over the dead body of the deceased, examined the relevant witnesses and sent the dead body for post-mortem. During the course of the investigation a letter marked as Ext. D-G was seized from the scene house and that the said letter is characterised as a suicide note and said to have been left by the deceased herself. On completion of the investigation, the Inspector of Police filed the challan. 4. Thus the admitted facts that are established from evidence are (1) that the appellant married the deceased on 24-10-1987; and (2) that Anita committed suicide on 24-2-1988 within a period of four months from the date of marriage by consuming poison. The evidence of PW 1 the Medical Officer who conducted the post-mortem examination, the Chemical Report Ext. PD and the evidence of DW 5 who gave the first treatment to the deceased at the scene house cumulatively reveal that the deceased-Anita had consumed poison, namely, Aluminium Phosphate and died in the hospital at about 10.45 a.m. on 24-2-1988. The fact that on the date of the incident the appellant-husband, his parents and Ashu were in the house is not in dispute. 5. According to the prosecution the deceased had consumed poison on account of cruelty and harassment meted out to her by her husband and other members of his family. Therefore, the only question that rises for our consideration is as to whether the deceased went to the extent of putting her end on her own accord for any other reason other than one mentioned in Section 304B Indian Penal Code or whether the deceased was driven to resort to committing suicide on being subjected to cruelty and harassment by the husband and other members of the family. 6. 6. The prosecution to substantiate its case that the deceased was driven to the extent of putting an end to her life since she was subjected to cruelty and harassment by her husband and relatives of her husband for or in connection with the demand for dowry, placed reliance upon the evidence of PW 4, the father of the deceased, PW 5 a close relative of both the parties who got the marriage set and PW 14 Manohar Lal. According to the father of the deceased PW 4 though he had given the jewellery and other articles worth about Rs. 1,15,000 the appellant and his parents were making a demand of Rs. 2,00,000 more for meeting the expenses of the appellant for his Agency business. In fact the father goes to the extent of saying that his daughter was physically and mentally harassed and that during the month of January when the deceased had been to the house of her parents she had complained of torture and harassment at the hands of her husband and relatives. The defence of the accused is that there was no demand for dowry and the deceased had never been harassed or cruelly treated either by the husband or any one of the members of the family and the father of the girl had given a false complaint on account of the dispute for return of the jewels of the deceased. The appellant has examined certain witnesses to rebut the presumption that may be raised against him, particularly through DW 5 sister of the appellant and DW 2 Medical Officer. Apart from the oral evidence of the defence witnesses, much reliance has been made on Ext. D-G which is the 'Suicidal Note' left by the deceased in which the deceased had stated that she was committing suicide on her own free will and that neither her husband nor her father-in-law, nor her mother-in-law and nor her sister-in-law was responsible for her death. 7. In the background of the evidence and circumstances of this case, we have to examine whether the prosecution has established the charge with which the appellant stands convicted or not. Apart from the oral testimony of PWs 4, 5 and 14 there is no other evidence in support of the allegation of cruelty and harassment. 7. In the background of the evidence and circumstances of this case, we have to examine whether the prosecution has established the charge with which the appellant stands convicted or not. Apart from the oral testimony of PWs 4, 5 and 14 there is no other evidence in support of the allegation of cruelty and harassment. So, if the evidence of these three witnesses is free from any doubt and worthy of acceptance there will not be any difficulty in upholding the judgment of the High Court. But the question is whether that evidence inspires the confidence of the Court or whether it suffers from any infirmity compelling the Court not to accept the testimony of those three witnesses. 8. As we have pointed out earlier there were three charges of which the first charge was that between 24-10-1987 and 24-2-1988 the appellant subjected the deceased to cruelty and harassment and thereby committed the offence punishable under Section 498A Indian Penal Code. But the trial court had found the appellant not guilty under this charge and acquitted him. The State has not preferred any appeal against the order of acquittal under Section 498A Indian Penal Code. The second charge is for the offence under Section 304B Indian Penal Code on the allegations that the deceased was subjected to cruelty and harassment in connection with the demand for dowry. Though we do not go to the extent of holding that the case should fail on account of the acquittal of the charge under Section 498A Indian Penal Code, we are making reference to the acquittal charge for showing that the Court was not satisfied with the evidence to substantiate the charge under Section 498A Indian Penal Code. In fact, this Court in Shanti v. State of Haryana, (1991) 1 SCC 371 : AIR 1991 Supreme Court 1226 to which one of us (S. Ratnavel Pandian, J.) was a party has rejected a submission made in that case that the acquittal under Section 498A Indian Penal Code would lead to a conclusion that cruelty on the part of the accused is not established in respect of an offence under Section 304B Indian Penal Code also to which the element of cruelty is an essential ingredient. However, the Bench has observed that these two provisions, namely, 304-B and 498-A Indian Penal Code deal with two distinct offences though "cruelty" is common essential to both the sections which fact has to be proved and that in order to avoid technical defects, it is necessary in such cases to frame charges under both the sections and if the case is established they can be convicted under both the sections but any separate sentence need not be awarded under Section 498A Indian Penal Code in view of the substantive sentence being awarded for the major offence under Section 304B Indian Penal Code. 9. The learned Senior Counsel for the appellant contends that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the allegation of cruelty and/or harassment ever since her marriage till the incident; but on the other hand the number of letters, admittedly written by the mother, brother and two sisters of the deceased since the marriage till 22-2-1988 and marked as Exbts. D-27 to 39 disprove those allegations of cruelty and harassment. PW 4 himself has admitted in his evidence that Exbts. D-27 to 31 were written by his younger daughter, Peenu to the deceased-Anita and Exbts. P-32 and 33 are the letters written by the mother of the deceased and Ext. D-34 was a letter written by Peenu and letters Exbts. D-35 to 37 were written by his son PW 4, namely Sudhir Mehta and Ext. D-38 was the letter written by PW 4 and admittedly written under his dictation and signed by him. Of these letters Ext. D-37 is dated 1-11-1987 and the last letter is one marked as Ext. D-34 and is dated 22-2-1988 written by Peenu to the deceased. All these letters have been addressed either to the deceased-Anita or to both jointly as well as to the mother of the appellant. In none of the letters written by the mother, brother and sister of the deceased during the months of November and December of 1987 and January and February of 1988 there is any reference to the alleged cruelty and harassment meted out to the deceased either by the appellant or any one of the relatives of the appellant. If really the deceased had been subjected to cruelty and harassment at the hands of the appellant or his relatives, definitely there should have been some reference about that. If really the deceased had been subjected to cruelty and harassment at the hands of the appellant or his relatives, definitely there should have been some reference about that. On the other hand the tenor of the letters unmistakably shows that there was a cordial relationship between the deceased and the appellant and deceased was happy with the entire members of the family of the appellant. While going through these letters we find some reference, indicating that the deceased had sent replies to her family members but none of the letters written by the deceased to her family members has been produced before the Court. On the other hand, there is ample evidence, showing that the deceased was happy in the marital home and that she was genuinely in love with her husband and leading a cheerful life with her husband. PW 15 the Sub-Inspector of Police has testified to the fact that in spite of his best efforts he could not get even a single letter of the deceased written to her parents, brother or sisters. The evidence of PW 15 in this connection is more important and we would like to reproduce the part of his (PW 15's) evidence which reads thus : "During the investigation, I had interrogated the womenfolk of the neighbour of the accused. I made inquiry regarding the quarrel of Anita with the in-laws regarding dowry etc. I inquired from them if Anita was happy, I asked Chaman Lal Mehta and Inderpal Mehta and Jagdish to produce the letters and writing of Anita. In spite of my consistent demands, it was not produced." 10. We feel that the letters written by the deceased are vital for the reason that had the deceased been subjected to any cruelty and harassment she should have definitely mentioned the alleged cruelty or harassment in any one of her letters. The letters now produced and proved are consistent with the defence case that the deceased had never been subjected to any cruelty or harassment. The non-production of any of the letters, written by the deceased to her family members is fatal to the prosecution and supports the defence case. 11. On going through the evidence of PWs 4, 5 and 14 in the light of the documents Exbts. The non-production of any of the letters, written by the deceased to her family members is fatal to the prosecution and supports the defence case. 11. On going through the evidence of PWs 4, 5 and 14 in the light of the documents Exbts. D-27 to D-39, we are not much impressed with the oral evidence of these three witnesses which is diametrically opposed to that of the unassailed documentary evidence. 12. There is one more clinching circumstance that stands against the prosecution is the vital document marked as Ext. D-G. Though PW 4 the father of the deceased (sic) neither the signature of the deceased nor the contents of the letter, he admits the signature and writings of the letter marked as Ext. D-F which has been addressed to DW 5 by the deceased. The disputed writings and signature of the deceased in Ext. D-G was compared with the admitted writings and signature of the deceased in Ext. D-F by the handwriting expert DW 6 who has given the opinion that only the person who wrote Ext. D-F should have written D-G. The trial Judge on basis of the evidence of the handwriting expert has recorded its finding in the following words : "I conclude that Ext. D-G is the suicide note written by Anita Tandon before she died." 13. However, for the reasons mentioned in the judgment, the learned Judge has not relied upon the document. The High Court has rejected the document (Ext. D-G) only on the ground that it is undated. We are unable to understand the reason given by the High Court for not considering Ext. D-G because the letter should have been written only on the date of the incident since the contents read that the deceased had decided to put an end to her life and wanted to absolve the inmates of the house and did so by stating that neither the appellant nor any of the relatives was responsible for her death. It is not the case of the prosecution that this letter was obtained from her either under compulsion or coercion. 14. Both the courts below have overlooked all those unassailable documentary evidence emerging from Exbts. D-27 to D-39 and conveniently omitted that evidence which cuts the very root of the prosecution. The reasons given by the High Court for rejecting Ext. D-G is not logical and acceptable. 15. 14. Both the courts below have overlooked all those unassailable documentary evidence emerging from Exbts. D-27 to D-39 and conveniently omitted that evidence which cuts the very root of the prosecution. The reasons given by the High Court for rejecting Ext. D-G is not logical and acceptable. 15. Now, coming to the conduct of the appellant, it is in evidence that the appellant finding his wife vomiting brought DW 2 even at 7.30 a.m. and thereafter admitted her in the hospital by 8.30 a.m. 16. The concurrent and cumulative effect of the entire evidence when scrupulously examined shows that the deceased was not subjected to cruelty or harassment of any kind either by her husband for or in connection with any demand for dowry. In the absence of necessary ingredients to make out a case punishable under Section 304B Indian Penal Code, the presumption as to dowry death as envisaged in Section 113-B is not attracted. 17. It is very unfortunate that the deceased with 14 weeks of foetus in her womb had resorted to put the tragic end to her life by consuming poison evidently in despair. In fact, the cause of death still remains a mystery. There is not even a shred of evidence much less convincing evidence indicating the provocation for the distress to go to the extent of committing suicide. Further there is not even an iota of evidence as to whether her husband or any other person abetted the commission of such suicide so that the abettor could be punished under Section 306 Indian Penal Code. In fact, the charge under Section 306 Indian Penal Code ended in acquittal even in the trial court against which the State has not preferred any appeal rightly too in the absence of any evidence. 18. In the result, we are constrained to set aside the conviction under Section 304B Indian Penal Code and the sentences imposed therefor and acquit the appellant. The amount of fine if already paid by the appellant, is directed to be refunded. 19. The appeal is allowed accordingly. Appeal allowed.