Overview
- A Delhi court convicted Bihar‑based doctor Prashant Kumar Sinha on May 30 for cruelty and dowry death after finding testimony and medical records showed his wife died of aluminium‑phosphide poisoning within three months of their 2013 marriage.
- Two courts issued acquittals in separate cases on May 29–30: a Delhi court cleared a husband and four relatives after the deceased’s suicide note cited household friction rather than dowry, and a Noida court acquitted two men when the post‑mortem recorded no injuries and a suicide note did not mention dowry.
- Judges relied heavily on documentary and forensic evidence — including suicide notes, post‑mortem findings and a message about a car in one file — to accept or reject prosecution claims about dowry demands.
- Courts repeatedly cited the Supreme Court’s Major Singh precedent, emphasizing that the statutory dowry‑death presumption under IPC 304B cannot replace proof beyond reasonable doubt of a causal link between alleged dowry cruelty and the death.
- The orders, which resolve incidents from 2014–2018, highlight how stricter evidentiary scrutiny can both secure convictions where the record shows a clear link and leave victims’ families without legal redress when contemporaneous notes or medical reports contradict dowry claims.