NEW DELHI, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The Indian Supreme Court Tuesday ruled a wife's dying declaration in dowry death cases can be relied on after prosecution witnesses have turned hostile.
The ruling upheld the life sentences given to a woman's husband and her in-laws for her death, even though the victim's father had become a hostile witness for unknown reasons after giving a statement under oath, the Press Trust of India reported.
"When a person making the statement is in the danger of losing his life, at such serious and solemn moment, he will not tell lies," the ruling said.
In sentencing Vikas (one name only) and his parents in the death of Vikas' wife Rekha, who died of burns in May 2001, a lower court in Mumbai ruled the victim's father was a liar, the report said. The court relied on two of Rekha's dying declarations recorded by a special judicial magistrate and a police official.
Rekha died allegedly for not meeting the dowry demands of her husband and his parents.
Deaths of young brides in such situations are common in India, where the abuse of the arranged marriage system has given rise to unreasonable dowry demands, even though they are outlawed.
