Court Acquits Maharashtra Woman's Husband, His Family In Case Of Cruelty Against Her

A court in Maharashtra's Thane district has acquitted a man and four of his other family members accused of subjecting his wife to cruelty, noting the woman "resiled" and did not support her own version.

Additional Sessions Judge Amit M Shete, in the order passed on April 3, gave the benefit of the doubt to the accused and held the prosecution has failed to prove the charges against all of them and hence they need to be acquitted.

A copy of the order was made available on Monday.

Those acquitted include the woman's 34-year-old husband, her in-laws, sister-in-law and a brother-in-law who is an Army man.

They were charged under various Indian Penal Code sections, including 498-A (cruelty), 313 (causing miscarriage without woman's consent), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult), 506 ( criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention).

The prosecutor told the court that the woman got married on August 3, 2013.

Her husband and in-laws then started harassing her mentally and physically over household work, dowry demand of Rs 4 lakh and other miscellaneous reasons.

The accused used to keep her starving and torture her by assaulting and threatening her.

While the informant (victim) was pregnant, her husband also assaulted her in the stomach, due to which she suffered a miscarriage, the prosecution alleged.

In his order, the judge said, "The informant resiled and not supported her own version. The complaint remained unproven." The panchanamas only go to show the arrest of the accused and nothing else, the court noted.

On perusal of the medical certificate, it transpires that the informant had sustained no external injuries, it said.

"The medical examination of the informant revealed no pregnancy. It is specifically mentioned in the certificate that there was no sign of pregnancy. The informant missed the MC (periods) and therefore, she might have carried the impression of pregnancy, however, the certificate is very clear, and without any doubt, the informant was not carrying a pregnancy," the court said.

Thus, the serious charge of causing miscarriage, which is a cognisable offence triable by the court, stands disproved, the judge said.

The court also noted that the woman's brother-in-law, who is an Army person, is said to have been posted in Jammu and Kashmir and therefore, he remained absent (during the hearing).

"The law is settled, if there is an acquittal order, it can be extended to the absent accused," the court said. 

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