Barkat Ali Zaidi - (1.) THE three accused against whom a charge-sheet has been submitted in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Allahabad under Sections 498/323/504/506, I.P.C. read with Section 3/4, Dowry Prohibition Act have come to this Court under Section 482 for quashing of the charge-sheet.
(2.) HEARD Sri Samit Gopal, counsel for the applicants and Sri I. N. Chaturvedi, for the complainant and Mohd. Israil Siddiqui, Addl. Government Advocate for the State. The petition provides a classic example how an inane innocuous matter without substance and without foundation, is brought to Court piling up the docket of the Court, and consuming court time. In order to substantiate these observation it would be necessary to narrate the prosecution story, in brief.
(3.) THE daughter of the complainant, Smt. Shrishti, was married on 1.3.2002 to one Sandeep Gupta. THE father of the girl is a Reader in the University of Allahabad. It is very relevant to note that the first information report has been lodged on 6.2.2002 itself, i.e., to say within a period of 4 months after the marriage. What happened with the girl within this short period, is a story of extreme torture and cruelty, meted out to her. Not only the demands of dowry were made but all sorts of physical and mental torture were given to the girl. THE conduct of the husband specially has been obnoxiously abhorrent towards his wife. In fact, according to the prosecution story, the husband violated even the basic confines of decency and dignity of his wife inasmuch as he made vulgar and obscene overtures towards his wife and insisted to make her blue films. When such a lascivious onslaught against the chastity and honour of the girl was resisted, it resulted in further coercion and torture on her. THE other relatives of the husband instead of coming to the protection of the girl, added fuel to the fire and became party in inflicting mental torture to her. When the tragic happenings became too much to bear, the unfortunate father had to report the matter to the police. The F.I.R. narrates the whole tale of woe of the poor lady, and even if a small part of the F.I.R. is true, it will be sufficient to constitute an offence under Sections 498A, 323 and 506, I.P.C. and Section 3/4, Dowry Prohibition Act. The Investigation Officer after the investigation found the facts true and correct and submitted a charge-sheet.;