Naveen (None) 15 May 2012

Help me please

We married about 3 years back and it was an arrange marriage. My wife's behavior has always been very cruel and threatening since the beginning of our marriage as she had a concern on me taking care of my sibling's education (2 brothers and youngest sister(17 years), all of them being student of University of Delhi, dependent on me and staying with me) and dependent parent's (living in a far village) livelihood and spending a good money on all of us. Ever since the beginning, she started pressurizing me to get separate from my extended family and handing over all my salary to her. Its about 9 months (August 2011) when I relocated to a distant city on account of change of job and my wife continued living with my siblings. After 3 months (November 2011), she took away all her ornaments and some money and went to her parental home on the pretext of attending a relative's marriage ceremony and since then she did not come back. I tried to convince her and bring her back but she never wished to return and on one odd day her brother called me on phone and told that about their final decision of divorce (either force or mutual) asking me money and also threatened me of trapping all of us in a dowry case. I have recording of this conversation. As I am the only earning member of my family and I wished for an integrated family, there were already irrevocable differences developed between us thereof so I myself filled a divorce petition on the ground of cruelity(Feb 2011). Now all of sudden (on 13 May 2011) she, along with her parents and brother, has come to the place where we last stayed together and my siblings are residing nowadays. She, along with all accompanied, started quarreling, abusing and threatening us of dire consequences and by harming herself and trapping us in false criminal cases. Soon after 2hours, her parents and brother left leaving her with us, since then, she has been torturing all of us and constantly asking for huge money (5 lakhs and more).

Coincidentally, I am also present here on vacation and university exams of my brothers and sister are going on. She even tried to dramatically commit suicide and and horrified us so I approached nearby PS but was not entertained so I have submitted an application (14 May) for registering a case to SSP office.

Now my most immediate problems are-

1) This all is adversely impacting the ongoing exams of by siblings, and
2) I have to travel back at work immediately as being the sole earning member of my family, I cannot afford loosing my job.

Please advise asap and help me overcome this??

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10 Replies

Adv.R.P.Chugh (Advocate/Legal Consultant (rpchughadvocatesupremecourt@hotmail.com)) 15 May 2012

Dear Mr.Naveen,

A person caught up with an estranged suicidal wife is in a tough position, considering how one sided indian laws and authorities are, however there are a couple of things that you can start with to safeguard your family :-

i) Intimate the higher authorities of your state as to your plight ; alongwith relevant judgments/guidelines.

ii) Diligently contest your divorce suit;

Feel free to talk !

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Naveen (None) 29 May 2012

Thank you very much Mr Bharat.

Here are the recent developments is this case as below.

1- The wife had left my place the next day (on 15th May) and she had moved several complaints to different authorities (SSP, DIG, CM etc.) falsely alleging severe mental torture, physical assault and dowry harassment throughout her entire period of stay with us. She had named every member of my family – father, and all of my younger brothers and sister. In fact she never stayed with my parents.

2- It may be evident here that her sudden coming to my place after 6 months was a part of the plot wherein she had planned to implicate our family in a false dowry harassment case and which she eventually did.

3- The local police station and Mahila thana, upon receipt of these complaints contacted me and the proceedings are going on in Mahila thana.

4- Local police station has already submitted its reports against these complaints mentioning the proceedings undergoing at Mahila thana.

5- Mahila thana is appearing keen to settle the dispute without a registering an FIR where during the most recent conversations, they made my wife willing to rejoin my family and withdraw her complaint of dowry harassment if I withdraw my divorce petition, which is now not acceptable to me at all because of the quarrelling nature of my wife and her false allegations of dowry harassments.

6- Also, my wife has submitted a list of expenditures (totaling a sum of Rs 11 Lakhs spent by her family in marriage) which IO has informed me and told me that it would be further negotiated and may be brought down to a lump sum of Rs 7 Lakh and I have to repay her this amount in 2 installments in case I don’t want a FIR to be registered. In one of the telephone conversion 6 months back (on Dec 30, 2011), my brother-in-law has mentioned that they want divorce from me in any case (be it forced or mutual) and had asked me to pay them back their total expenses incurred on marriage (around Rs. 7 Lakhs). I have recordings of this conversion and so this may be an evidence??? of contradictory marriage expenses (11Laks vs. 7 Lakhs).

7- I have another email from my brother-in-law sent on Jan 6, 2012. In this email he had asked me to send him back my 1) Salary slips, 2) ITR 3) Property details in my name/parents name). He has explicitly mentioned that he needed these details for a mutual consent divorce purpose. Only upon receipt of this email, I became suspicious of their greedy nature and myself filed a divorce petition

8- So all this drama, they are playing for money extortion or forcefully compelling me to reunite with my totally incompatible wife.

So please suggest me if I have any remedy available from any court of law as I am very falsely being implicated in this trap and facing severe harassment/trauma of everyday visiting some or other police personnel. Does there exists a law where these proceedings can be quashed and the only divorce petition I can have to fight for ??

Naveen (None) 29 May 2012

Please advise.

bhima balla (none) 29 May 2012

Originally posted by :Naveen
"	Please advise.	"

Boy Oh Boy-another victim!

1) Seriously consider obtaining Anticipatory bail if permitted in your state for all concerned.

2) Please consult a lawyer.Avoiding arrest is a priority if she is headed towards 498a/ DP acts.

3) Read and know all there is to know about these cases.

Be bold and brave and do not yield to their pressure. Please take care of your family-explain to them the difficult times ahead and how you can all help each other to cope with it! It is a good lesson for your siblings for the future. They will all become aware of the rotten system in vogue!

Join the fight and become the foot soldier in the fight against these nefarious laws.

Good luck!!

Anjuru Chandra Sekhar (Advocate ) 29 May 2012

YOur case is in very preliminary stage. Apply for anticipatory bail. Voice recording is admissible as evidence if it is genuine even Email can be presented as evidence. After FIR is filed if evidence is not found or the evidence found is insufficient prima facie, the trial court itself may discharge you before framing charge sheet. That is one possibility. Police report, if it goes in favor of you saying no evidence found, then also it may work in your favor. But police generally send a negative report only, so that you remain under pressure and some monetary transaction of compromise takes place between you and complainant and they be party to it. That is second possibility. During this process you may file for quashing of FIR/Chargesheet in HC under sec.482. HC has powers to quash FIR or the chargesheet itself. Your voice recording goes a long way in helping your cause, keep the original safe and only give duplicate to advocates and others. When court asks you to submit original, submit the original in court.

Don't pay any amounts to them as part of mediation by police, women's cell etc. prior to filing of FIR because if you pay now there is no guarantee that they will not file cases and again they will demand more money; so whatever happens let it happen through the process of court. If they want mediation regarding payment of money tell them, to mediate by replying to your divorce petition, HMA allows for mediation. Without court order do not pay a single penny to anyone.

Naveen (None) 29 May 2012

Thanks for prompt reply. I have been told that in state of Uttar Pradesh, there is no provision of anticipatory bail.

Naveen (None) 10 July 2012

Here is an update about the above matter-

There has been few meetings between both of us parties aiming compromise and now Mahila thana IO has forwarded the matter drafting an FIR to some mediation authority located at District Court for a possible settlement and failing a compromise would result in registration of the FIR. I got summoned to be present there (09/07) and so I visited but the other party did not present there. Now, I have been given a date next week (19/07).

The earlier complaint given to different authorities accused 5 of our family members and now the FIR draft says that there were 6 accused, this time my mother was added to the list.

Please suggest me whether it is still premature to approach any of the authorities for a bail (this is case of UP where state law doesn't have a provision of AB)

Will quashing of FIR be possible based on the facts that -

1) No complaint ever made earlier during 3 years of marriage.

2) I have applied for a divorce in Jan 12.

3) Wife has not been living with us since October 11,

4) Just to frame 498a/324 charges, she visited my home in May 12 after six months, stayed for a night threatening me that she still had a right to stay there as the divorce had not taken place by that time.

5) In her first complaint she accused 5 people from family and then in FIR draft there are 6 accused.

Thank you very much.

SamHarry35 (Others) 10 July 2012

Avoid arrest for all the family members and ask your parents to disown you. Then your wife cannot drag them in the case. Keep all your evidence safe and do not get arrested. Consult a good local lawyer to counter false cases.

Naveen (None) 11 July 2012

What are the grounds for quashing of the FIR?

It is learned now that the FIR has already been registered on 20th June and is undergoing the process of amicable settlement till date. I have obtained a copy of it today.

Adv.R.P.Chugh (Advocate/Legal Consultant (rpchughadvocatesupremecourt@hotmail.com)) 12 July 2012

I would say naveen don't bend in for their extortionate tactics....Read this

How to fight a false 498a case in India ? a step by step legal strategy.

In Uncategorized on July 7, 2012 at 5:39 am

How to fight a false 498A ? A common husband’s guide.

“For men in India marriage is a lottery but you can’t tear up your ticket even if you lose…” and it’s not just you who would have to live with the lost lottery but your entire family may have to suffer at the hands of a system so grossly skewed in favour of women.

Marriages may fall apart for a lot of reasons, temperamental issues, compatibility problems, but does that make you an offender in the eyes of law? Yes it does, your estranged wife in order to have her way in arm-twisting you may implicate you and your family in end number of false cases, 498A being the foremost.

498A penalizes cruelty for dowry, almost always comes alongwith S.406 Allegations which basically penalize the criminal breach of trust, when your wife’s articles are entrusted to you and you fail to return them back – misappropriate them or convert them to own use – you are criminally liable !. By aid of S.34 of the Indian Penal Code – your family/relatives can be held liable for the same if they share the common intention with you.

Now if you think that you have a wife who can potentially do this for money or the kicks that her ego gets out of the same or pure vengeance then you are my friend in a vulnerable situation, but there is a silver lining to this, there are legal strategies that may help minimize, if not completely rule out, the damage or mischief that may occur to you.

Being a Supreme Court Advocate and a Mens Rights Activist I speak from experience, the following things may(if done correctly) help in a lot of cases :-

1. Insist on a dowry-less marriage – Preparing of list of articles received at the time of marriage, countersigned by both the families, would help rule out exaggerated claims later !

2. Digging the well before the fire starts; when trouble starts at home you apprise all concerned of the problems that you are facing, not for the purposes of any action but information;

If you see things going awry in near future, then it would be good idea to seperate from parents to a rented house with sufficient public notices;

3. As per the prevailing law atleast here in Delhi, if your wife approaches a Police Station with her complaint, she is to be forwarded CAW CELL instituted to try and reconcile and investigate and act as buffers so that penal actions are not inititated right away. Once the matter goes to CAW Cell – apply for an anticipatory bail , you are sure to get notice bail atleast – this would help in two ways :-

a) Give you greater confidence, level playing field in the CAW Cell talks;

b) Prevent any hasty arrest on failure of conciliation;

All in all nothing to lose in this and in this step 1. Would help a great deal.

4. Seek a copy of complaint via RTI ASAP, since they deny at the first instance you’d have to appeal therefrom which may take some time. There are CIC Decisions that would help you here.

5. In the event of an FIR being registered apply for AB again, and quashing of FIR (not always depends on the kind of allegations leveled)

6. Filing Restitution of Conjugal Rights (case that you want her back) may help in some cases, but not in all. Sometimes it helps in defending maintenance cases, and showing your bona fides.

7. Keep a check on your wife’s finances. Would come handy defending maintenance cases.

8. Prosecution (S.340 CrpC) for perjury in cases of false & exaggerated claims in maintenance petitions.

9. Tax Evasion Petitions once you get the List of Istridhan may also help put pressure.

10. Dowry Prohibition Act – penalizes giving of dowry so in case there is a clear admission of DOWRY (not Istridhan) then in that case your in laws are also liable to be prosecuted. Think on these lines !

11. With a marital property law on the anvil, don’t buy property in your name, much less jointly with spouse.

The above may go a great deal helping you defend correctly, my advise would be to stand your ground, don’t give in to their extortionate tactics, once you’d get an AB the worst would already be over and after that the judicial system with it’s endemic delays won’t treat your wife differently, sooner or later she would realize that frivolous litigation doesn’t pay !

The Author is a Supreme Court Advocate, and a Mens Rights Activist and can be reached at bharat.law06@gmail.com, Tel : 9810553252

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