Karnataka HC Directs Police To Investigate Allegations Of Unnatural Sex Leveled Against IIT'ian Husband By Wife Also Pursuing Doctorate At IIT

The Karnataka High Court has directed the police to investigate alleged charges of performing unnatural sex, levelled against a husband by his estranged wife. A single judge bench allowed the petition filed by the wife seeking further investigation on her complaint after the police filed a chargesheet against the husband only under section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code and dropped the charges under section 377, 34 of the IPC and Sections 66E and 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The bench said, "The Writ Petition is allowed and a mandamus is issued to the 1st respondent-Commissioner of Police, to direct conduct of further investigation into Crime No.89 of 2017 by an Investigating Officer, other than the one who had investigated Crime No.89 of 2017, who shall bear in mind the observations made in the course of this order." The Court directed that further investigation into the matter shall be completed and a report thereof shall be placed before the Magistrate concerned within two months. Till such time, the trial shall remain stayed. Case Details: The petitioner-wife and respondent-husband met in the year 2013 while pursuing PhD at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and they got married at Bangalore in June 2015. It is the case of the petitioner that right from the beginning of marriage the behaviour of her husband was torturous for having anal sex/unnatural sex. It is contended that for the purpose of performance of such unnatural acts the husband used to abuse, assault and torture her. Becoming unbearable after about three months of marriage, she left the place of the husband to reside with her parents at Raipur. After about 20 days, it is alleged that the petitioner went back to Mumbai to attend a lab at IIT, at which point in time, her husband again persuaded her to come back on an assurance that he would not behave in the manner in which he was behaving in the past. But there was no change in the behaviour of the husband and rather, it got aggravated due to which, the petitioner permanently left the husband to reside with her parents in January 2016. Later, it is alleged that the husband began to threaten her of leaking all obscene pictures of her on social media and also forwarded certain obscene pictures of her to her her father and friends. Thereafter, the petitioner registered a crime before the police at Raipur. Since all the incidents had happened at Bangalore, the Superintendent of Police, Raipur transferred the case to the Commissioner of Police, Bangalore to be investigated by the jurisdictional police, after which, the crime is registered at Bangalore for the offences afore-quoted. The husband in 2019 filed a petition in High Court sought completion of investigation expeditiously which was allowed. Following which the police filed a charge sheet against the accused on 26 September 2019, only for the offence punishable under Section 498A of the IPC leaving out all other offences that were alleged against the husband at the time of registration of FIR. Petitioner's submissions: Advocate S.Guru Prasanna, for the wife contended that the chargesheet deliberately dilutes the complaint against the husband by deleting offences under Section 377 r/w Section 34 of the IPC and Sections 66E and 67 of the Act, notwithstanding the fact that the complaint made by the petitioner was in such graphic details. Moreover, the statement recorded by the Police at Raipur at the time when the complaint was registered was also in graphic details. Both these factors have been completely ignored by the Investigating Officer at the time of conduct of investigation. He contended that for a fair trial to be conducted for the offences alleged against the husband, re-investigation or further investigation by a different officer should be ordered by the Court. Prosecution arguments: The prosecution submitted that the statement recorded by the Investigating Officer did not divulge any of the offences that were alleged against the husband in the complaint or in the statements made at Raipur. It is for that reason, all the other offences were given up and only offence under Section 498A of IPC are retained. The High Court Government Pleader would submitted that if the Court were to order for further investigation it would be so done. Court Findings: The bench referring to the detailed statement of the wife recorded before the police while lodging the FIR and the case being transferred to Bengaluru, said, "If the complaint registered at Raipur and the statements recorded by the Police at Raipur are juxtaposed with the findings of investigation/final report filed by the Police, it would unmistakably reveal gross variance. The graphic details in the complaint and the contents of the statements recorded by the Police are completely thrown to the winds by the Investigating Officer. The offence punishable under...

Karnataka HC Directs Police To Investigate Allegations Of Unnatural Sex Leveled Against IIT'ian Husband By Wife Also Pursuing Doctorate At IIT

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