Patna High Court Quashes Cruelty Case Against Husband After Woman Declared Dead By Family Was Found Alive
The Patna High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against a man accused of cruelty under Section 498A IPC after noting that the complainant's family had mistakenly identified an unidentified woman's body as hers, while she was in fact alive in Mumbai.Justice Praveen Kumar passed the order in a petition challenging the Magistrate's decision taking cognisance of the offence.According to...
The Patna High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against a man accused of cruelty under Section 498A IPC after noting that the complainant's family had mistakenly identified an unidentified woman's body as hers, while she was in fact alive in Mumbai.
Justice Praveen Kumar passed the order in a petition challenging the Magistrate's decision taking cognisance of the offence.
According to the complaint, the parties were married on May 11, 2016. The complainant alleged that when she reached her matrimonial home, her husband disclosed that he was already married. She further alleged that she was subjected to cruelty, denied food and water, thrown out of the matrimonial home and deprived of her stridhan. The complaint also alleged that her in-laws spread rumours that she had died.
The petitioner, however, contended that the complainant had voluntarily left the matrimonial home and travelled to Mumbai. He further alleged that her family wrongly identified an unidentified decomposed body as that of the complainant and attempted to implicate him and his family in a murder and dowry death case.
According to the petitioner, the police later received information that the complainant was alive in Mumbai. She was brought back and her statement under Section 164 CrPC was recorded, in which she stated that she was alive and had voluntarily gone to Mumbai. The petitioner argued that the subsequent complaint under Section 498A IPC was a counterblast intended to harass him and his family.
Taking note of these submissions and the materials placed on record, the High Court found that continuation of the prosecution would not be justified. The Court observed that the complainant had been found alive after her family had identified another woman's body as hers, and that the materials relied upon by the petitioner formed part of the overall circumstances requiring consideration.
Case Title: Dinesh Kushwaha @ Dinesh Kumar v. State of Bihar and Anr.
Case Number: Criminal Miscellaneous No. 33530 of 2018
Appearance: Mr. Prashant Kumar and Mr. Animesh Kumar for the Petitioner. Mr. Awadhesh Kumar Singh for the State. Mr. Suresh Prasad Bhakta and Mr. Rameshwar Thakur for Opposite Party No. 2.