The High Court of Jharkhand quashed proceedings against petitioners accused under Section 498A of the IPC and held that the role played by these petitioners is not disclosed and there are only general and omnibus allegations against the petitioners and the present complaint case failed to establish specific allegations against these petitioners and further 498A is being used as weapon rather than shield by disgruntled wives.
Brief Facts:
The present petition was filed for quashing of entire criminal proceedings against the petitioners after a complaint was filed after a case was filed against him under Section 498A after the complainant alleged that she was tortured by the petitioners.
Contentions of the Petitioner:
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners contended that only general and omnibus allegations against the petitioners and further submitted that on 01.04.2013, petitioner no.2 was travelling and the allegations are made that on 02.04.2013 torture was made by these petitioners, which falsify the case against the petitioners who happened to be brother-in-law and sister-in-law of the complainant respectively.
Contentions of the Respondent:
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent submitted that there are allegations against these petitioners and in view of that, no case of interference is made out and further these are questions of fact and that can only be appreciated in the trial.
Observations of the court:
The court referred to the facts of the case and observed that the petitioners were residing in Hyderabad, whereas, the alleged place of occurrence is at Dhanbad and further it was alleged in the complaint petition that on 02.04.2013, the accused came to Dhanbad and was tortured the complainant but the document issued by the South Central Railway clearly suggested that false statement had been made in the complaint petition.
Further the court stated that Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code was inserted in the statute with the laudable object of punishing cruelty at the hands of husband or his relatives but there is a phenomenal increase in matrimonial disputes in recent years and it appears that in many cases, the object of Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code is being misused and the said Section is used as weapon rather than shield by disgruntled wives. It was stated that such type of cases are being filed in the heat of the moment over trivial issues without proper deliberations an further relied on the judgment in Preeti Gupta vs State of Jharkhand in furtherance of same and further stated that little matrimonial skirmishes suddenly erupt which often assume serious proportions resulting in commission of heinous crimes in which elders of the family are falsely implicated by the wives and the court should be careful in proceeding against the distant relatives in crimes pertaining to matrimonial disputes and dowry deaths.
The court stated that in the present case , the role played by these petitioners is not disclosed and there are only general and omnibus allegations against the petitioners and the present complaint case failed to establish specific allegation against these petitioners.
The decision of the Court:
The court allowed the petition and quashed the entire criminal proceecings sgainst the petitioners.
Case Title: Rakesh Rajput @ Rakesh and anr. vs State of Jharkhand and anr.
Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi
Case No.: Cr.M.P. No. 2579 of 2013
Advocate for the Petitioner: Ms Ashma Khanam
Advocate for the Respondent: Mr. Sanjay Kumar Srivastava and Mr. Soumitra Baroi
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