- (1.) The present petition filed under Section 438 Cr. P. C. is for grant of anticipatory bail to the petitioners in case FIR No. 599, dated 23.10.2010, under Sections 498-A, 406, 34 IPC, registered at Police Station Faridabad Central, District Faridabad (Haryana).
(2.) I have heard learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the whole record carefully, including the impugned orders passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Faridabad, vide which applications filed on behalf of the present petitioners for anticipatory bail were dismissed.
(3.) It is pertinent to reproduce the FIR lodged in this case at the instance of complainant-wife, namely, Shweta Chopra, to the Commissioner of Police, Police Station Central Faridabad, which reads as under:- "Dated:- 23-10-2010 to The Commissioner of Police, Police Station, Central, Faridabad. Subject: Criminal complaint against Mr. Varun Chopra (Husband), Mrs. Veena Chopra (Mother- in- law), Ms. Vidhi Chopra (Sister-in- law) & Shri Vinod Chopra (Father-in-law) all resident of D-1/33, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, for committing various offences of Cruelty, Demand of Dowry, physical & mental assault and Criminal Breach of Trust. Sir, 1. I married to Varun Chopra according to Hindu customs, rites and ceremonies at Sewa Farms, Jaunapur Mandi Road, New Delhi on 16.02.2009 in the presence of the friends & relatives and soon after the marriage, I was tortured, abused, assaulted and was treated with utmost cruelty on various occasions by my in-laws in order to pressurize me to fulfill their illegal and unlawful demands of dowry. My husband Varun Chopra, mother-inlaw Veena Chopra, father-in-law Vinod Chopra and sister-inlaw Vidhi Chopra, tortured me physically and mentally to the extent that I felt like committing suicide and give up my life. I initially did not make any complaint and suffered the cruel behaviour of these people, but when it became a continuous act on day to day basis, I contacted my parents and narrated all the incidents giving rise to the present complaint. 2. This all started in Feb. 2007 when we were sent a marriage proposal through a local marriage broker for the matrimonial alliance of myself with Varun. However, looking into our financial and social status, Chopra family was very keen to get their only son married to me at any cost. In the month of May, 2008, Mrs. Veena Chopra called up my mother and started talking about me. She made various representations about the credibility of their family and also the respect which they command in the society. She further stated that her son Varun Chopra was engaged earlier but has called off the engagement and she is very much interested in having matrimonial relations with our family. 3. That on her constant persuasions and various representations, my parents thought of meeting them and thus we invited Shri Vinod Chopra and his family to our house on 21st June 2008. We had a brief meeting in our house in Faridabad. Varun had a chat with me for some time. In the month of Oct. /Nov. 2008, I attended one of the Diwali parties of my friend where I met Varun again. After that Diwali party, Varun started sending messages to me and also started making calls on regular basis, trying to please me and also showing his inclinations for getting married to me. On 6.11.2008 Varun proposed me and on his perpetual overtures and alluring talks my parents said yes for the marriage. Before the marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Chopra demanded that since they are marrying their son in Lakhani family it would be expected that their relatives and friends would be given gifts in gold and diamond only. 4. Mrs. Veena Chopra came to our house in Faridabad in the morning of 1.12.2008 and stated that she has invited about 100 people from her family and friends who will be attending the Roka ceremony and demanded that Sagan in cash should be given to each and every guest who attend the Roka ceremony. She told my parents to prepare various envelops with different amounts for their relatives. All these envelopes were handed over to Mrs. Chopra, who stated that she would give the same to the relatives herself later. My parents organized the Roka ceremony in our house at Faridabad where they spent about Rs. 5.63 Lacs and gave cash Sagan to the Chopra family worth about Rs. 16.57 Lacs and Gold coins & Jewellery worth Rs. . 18.00 Lacs. My Parents had also invited about 300 people from our family/ friends to formally declare the marriage of mine. The Sagan given by my family/ friends amounting to Rs. . 3.50 Lacs was also handed over to Mrs Veena Chopra, on her request. (The list is enclosed herewith). However after the marriage I learnt that the envelopes were never given to the relatives/friends and were retained by my mother in law. 5. On 7.12.2008 Mrs Veena Chopra and her daughter Vidhi Chopra visited our house in Faridabad and stated that they wanted the shopping for the marriage to be done from branded stores. They demanded that the clothes, bags, shoes and other articles of the marriage should be purchased from the branded stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Christian Dior, Bottega Venetta, Fendi, Salvatore Feraggamo, Versace etc. Both of them proposed names of various branded stores in Delhi and Mumbai and stated that goods should be purchased only from there. My Parents had no option but to purchase the articles from the said branded stores for the wedding. During this period, Mrs. Veena Chopra and her daughter Vidhi Chopra made numerous calls making demands for purchase of a particular brand of shoes, bags, apparels, etc. My family had to spend Approx. Rs. . 20 Lacs on these articles. 6. In the first week of Dec. 2009, Vinod Chopra called my parents and said that the 2nd floor of the house, where Varun stays is in a bad condition and in case we want Shweta to stay there, then my parents should renovate and restructure the entire floor for them. Being pressurized my parents decided to get their house renovated at their own expenses. My father immediately contacted Mr Rajan Sood, Architect and M/s D K Builders, the contractor, Sh Dharmendra for renovating/ restructuring of the house of my in-laws. They also said that the renovation should be completed before the date of the marriage so that Shweta can shift in that portion of the house immediately thereafter. Since it was an old house, the renovation required lot of money and more time. My father contacted Sh. Dharmendra and gave an advance of Rs. . 3.00 Lacs for the renovation of the house. The renovation work started in full swing however could not be completed at the time of marriage. My parents had paid Rs. 6.50 to the contractor for the renovation and Rs. 4.50 Lacs to FCML for the bathroom fittings. 7. On 13.1.2009 my parents had gone to the house of Chopra for Lohri. Mrs. Veena Chopra and Mr. Vinod Chopra said that the first Lohri has to be celebrated in a grand manner, and said that Jewellery/Gifts worth about 25 Lakhs should be given to them. They said that if this is not done, they would be embarrassed before their relatives. On the day of Lohri we could take cash/jewellery worth about 15 Lakhs. After the Lohri Mrs. Veena Chopra got very angry and said that she is very unhappy due to non fulfillment of her demand of gifts of Rs. 25 Lakhs. 8. On 23.1.2009 we had a family meeting and we decided that it may not be appropriate to go ahead with the marriage due to their greedy behaviour. It seemed as if they want only money and jewellery and not our daughter. After this meeting my parents decided to call off the marriage considering their greed for money. On my Parents insistence, my brother-in-law Sh. Nitin Miglani informed Varun that we are trying to call off the wedding as it would not be appropriate. However, after that Mr. and Mrs. Vinod Chopra continued to approach us through their friends and relatives that this will be an ideal marriage. They gave further assurances and as we had already declared the marriage to family/ friends, we decided to go ahead with the marriage. They also convinced my parents that their daughter would be very happy in the house and whatever has happened was due to some misunderstanding and they would accept whatever is being given to them. 9. On 5.2.2009, we organized a Mata Ki Chowki at our house and surprisingly Mrs. Veena Chopra did not attend the same. Mr. Vinod Chopra & Varun Chopra convinced us and said that she is not feeling well and thus has not come. Being in fear of call off marriage Mr. Vinod Chopra insisted that they should have an Arya Samaj/ Court Marriage on the very next day. That after being pressurized we arranged an Arya Samaj Marriage followed by Court Marriage on 6-2-2009. On 13.2.2009, my parents arranged a ring ceremony and Sagan at our house wherein we invited 700 guests from both sides and spent about Rs. . 62.13 Lacs, the list of which is enclosed herewith. On 16.2.2009, the formal marriage took place at a farm house in Juana Road, Mandi Road, New Delhi, wherein almost about 1200 people were invited and my parents had incurred an expenditure of Rs. 139.40 Lacs, as per demand of my in-laws, the list is enclosed. 10. On 9.2.2009 Smt. Veena Chopra my mother-inlaw and my husband Vinod Chopra visited our house in Faridabad and demanded that each & every guest accompanying the Barat should be paid Sagan to the minimum amount of Rs. 1 lac. On their specific demand, my parents had to prepare Sagan envelopes even for Varun's friends and their wives. Varun also told me that he wants that his dream car Porsche (Cayenne) in white colour should be given to him during the wedding. On his constant demands and looking into my future, my father had to book this car for an amount of Rs. . 88 lacs. The model of this car was sent to us for the wedding on 13.2.2009. However, after having a look at the car, Varun had a change of mind and stated that he did not want this car and it should be replaced with S Class Mercedes. Although my father had already paid for this car just to fulfill the demand of his son-in-law, my father immediately sent their office manager to purchase a new S320 Mercedes car. 11. After the marriage on 17.2.2009, when I visited the house for Phera, my parents handed over all the jewellery to me and Varun. My parents gave gifts in the form of jewellery/ watches/ designer clothes/ accessories for Mrs. Veena Chopra, Mr. Vinod Chopra, Mr. VarunChopra and Ms. Vidhi Chopra worth about Rs. . 620 Lacs as demanded by them. On 18.2.2009 I left for Vaishno Devi and before leaving my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law asked me to hand over all my jewellery and my suitcases with clothes, bags etc. , which I got from her parents, on the pretext of keeping it in safe custody. I, without understanding their real intentions, gave the entire jewellery/ gifts to them in their custody for safe keeping. The list of jewellery/clothes gifted to me is enclosed to the complaint. 12. I left for our honeymoon for Australia/ US for a month. Varun after coming back to Delhi bragged that he had spent Rs. 20 Lacs in the Honeymoon and demanded that this should be reimbursed to him. After coming back from honeymoon I, found that my suitcases containing expensive designer clothes, bags, accessories which were purchased from US had been removed from room and were missing. I later on learnt that all my bags containing branded clothes, handbags, perfumes, cosmetics, accessories etc. were secretly kept by my sister-in-law Vidhi on the instructions of her mother Veena Chopra. When I asked about them from my mother-inlaw & sister-in-law they said that they did not know where the bags were. After the marriage, my mother-in-law, fatherin-law, husband and sister-in-law, started taunting me on dayto-day basis for not bringing adequate dowry. My mother-inlaw Mrs. Veena Chopra deliberately used to loose her temper on trivial things and would abuse my parents in front of me and would say that my parents inspite of being so rich acted as 'Kanjus' and could not give enough money to them. On one occasion Mrs. Veena Chopra on a day of Holi got angry on me and tried to burn by throwing boiling water on me. I however saved with minor burn injuries. After the marriage my husband Varun also started threatening me every night and said that his mother wanted that his name should be put in all the properties belonging to me. He said that the house in Faridabad in Sector 14 and 21C should be in the joint name of Varun and Shweta and if the same is not done, I would be subjected to torture like this for rest of my life. Varun would also drink alcohol in the night and would beat me and lock me in the bath room for the entire night. When I told my parents about their new demand of transfer of properties to them, they suggested that I should tell my inlaws that the properties belonging to me were already pledged with the bank and my parents would get the same cleared and would get the property transferred as per the wishes of my husband and in-laws after some time. I was told that I should tell them that it might take 9 months to one year. 16. Soon after the marriage, my husband Varun started beating me physically and one day he and his mother hit me so badly that I suffered injury on my legs and I bled profusely. After beating Varun ran away from the house. Mr. s Veena instigated Varun to give me more beatings. When I got hurt badly and there was no body to attend to me, I called up my sister who took me to Dr. NK Pandey at Faridabad and he gave me medication. I had bodyache all over my body because of the severe beating given to me by Varun at the instance of my mother-in-law. I had to take medicines for one month. 17. One day I learnt that my husband Varun is having an affair with one Maneka. I also found out that they were having this relationship from the last many years and the reason of marrying me was only money and lots of dowry. I learnt that Varun had decided that after marrying me he would dump me and would marry Maneka. It seems as if Maneka was also party to the entire conspiracy. 18. In the first week of Sept. 2009, Mr. Varun and Mrs. Veena Chopra fought with me and locked me in the room at about midnight. I was again badly beaten up and was thrown on the bed. My husband Mr. Varun brought a knife and raised threat that he would kill me. While the room was locked, I somehow managed to call up my sister and narrated the entire incident. My elder sister and my brother-in-law immediately rushed to my matrimonial house. At the first instance they were not permitted to enter the house and the guard locked the main gate stating that he had instructions from Madam not to open the gate for anyone. When I was about to call the police, the guards to open the door and my elder sister could meet myself. They spent nearly four hours in the house trying to sort out the problem but the behaviour of Mrs. Veena Chopra and Mr. Varun Chopra was very aggressive and abusive. Varun also threatened that he had good connections in Delhi and his best friend had good connectivity with the media and in case anyone would say anything against them, then they would try to get them maligned by fabricating news items in the paper against them. They also raised threat to me by saying that I have another unmarried sister in the house and in case anything is done, then they would do everything to damage the reputation of the family. 19. On 26-9-2010 my mother-in-law, father-in-law, husband tried to strangulate me in their house but somehow I managed to escape. On 26th September, 2009, I was thrown out of the house by my inlaws with few clothing and I was abused and tortured the whole night. My husband, father-in-law, mother-in-law & sister-in-law also forced me to get these demands fulfilled & they all forcibly ousted me from the house on 26-9-2009 & did not allow me to carry anything from the house. I came to my parent's house only in three clothes which I was wearing at that time. All my jewelry, clothes & Istridhan alongwith other valuables are lying with my husband, father-in-law, mother-in-law & sister-in-law in their house at New Delhi. I came back to my parental house and started staying with my parents. Thereafter, I along with my father went to my inlaw's house but we were not allowed to get in the house. Rather Mr. Varun started using the abusive & unparliamentary language & shouted that he had told everything to his daughter & he should asked me only. Thereafter my parents tried to sort out the things with the help of other respectable people but no avail. 20. In the first week of Oct. 2009, Varun came to our house in Faridabad to meet me. He went to my room on the pretext of talking to me. After speaking to me for 20-25 minutes, he lost temper and took me in the corner of the room and banged my head on the wall and said that he would not accept me in his house till the properties are not transferred in his name. He said "Apne Baap ko keh dena ke Larki Ko Sasural Bhejna hai to property be sath mein bhenje". Before I could realize what he did, Varun rushed out of the house and ran away. 21. In the last week of Oct. 2009, my parents called up my in-laws and requested them to sort out the issue amicably in case there is any confusion or any misunderstandings. However, they were never interested in sorting out the problem. They said that Varun is not interested in staying with Shweta and he is in love with Maneka and therefore they would have a divorce by mutual consent so that Varun and Maneka could marry. 22. I called up my husband and mother- in-law in the last week of Nov. 2009 and asked for my jewellery as I had to go for attending a wedding of my elder sister's brother-in-law Parikshit Miglani at Mumbai. However inspite of requests, no jewellery or my belongings were given to me for the wedding at Mumbai. 23. I am under sever depression since October 2009 and am getting the treatment from Dr. Rajeev Kapoor in Faridabad. I am having anti depressant tablets to control my emotional self. I am unable to understand why my in-laws have subjected me with this filth, when my father has fulfilled all their demands of gifts/ jewellery worth Crores of rupees. 24. I am tired of the continuous physical torture and beatings at the hands of my husband, mother-in-law and sister-in-law, I have no other option but to request you to kindly register criminal case against my husband Mr. Varun Chopra, s/o Shri Vinod Chopra, my father-in-law Shri Vinod Chopra, s/o Shri Amlok Rai Chopra, my mother-in-law Mrs. Veena Chopra, w/o Shri Vinod Chopra, my sister-in-law Ms. Vidhi Chopra, D/o Shri Vinod Chopra, for committing various offences of cruelty, threat, demand of dowry and criminal breach of trust and investigate the same in accordance with law and also recover the jewellery articles, Furniture, gifts and expensive clothes from the possession of my husband, mother-in-law, father-in-law and sister-in- law. Thanking you. Yours faithfully, Shweta Chopra, at present R/o House No. 1340, Sector -14, Faridabad Enclosures:- List of Expenses Incurred on Roka and Courtship Ceremony, List of Expenses Incurred on Ring Ceremony, List of Expenses Incurred on Wedding and Phera Ceremony, List of Expenses Incurred on Personal Jewelry, Clothes and other Items of Shweta Chopra given as per demand of Chopra Family. Total expenditure incurred in the marriage of shweta" ;