Dear All,
I need some valuable advice on my queries.
My case goes on like this, I got married on 20th April 2011 and soon after marriage I and my wife came back to UAE where I have been working since 2005. I looked after her quite well after marriage and went to 5 holidays (4 different countries) in a span of 6 months but she was not happy to stay with me for reasons not known during that time and my life became a living hell. Finally she decided to move back to India on 7th December 2011, I accompanied her and left her in my in-laws house. I came back to UAE and was in touch with her through phone but not regularly i.e. maybe once in 15 days I used to call her, my last call to my in laws and her was on 7th and 8th March 2012 respectively requesting her to come back to me. She committed suicide on 12th March 2012 leaving a one lined death note stating “my husband and mother in law are responsible for my death”. I came for the funeral to India and even before funeral my in-laws went to media (TV and print) and police, so I had to travel back to UAE immediately to avoid any imprisonment. I fought for my bail and got it after 6 months (Sep 12) in High court then I came back to India to face investigation and trial. During investigation my passport was held by police and I was without job attending the courts and police. After police investigation was complete and they filed the charge sheet to court, I had to once again go to High Court to get my passport back. I started to work again in UAE from February 2013. Until now I have been travelling to India for each of the court hearings (20+ times till date). During my 6 months stay in India I found out that my wife was in love with a person before marriage and they were willing to marry each other but the parents objected to it as they belonged to different castes. But this guy was coming to her house and pestering her parents to allow them to get married. But when they couldn’t handle it anymore they went to police and registered a Non Cognizable Report (NCR) against this guy. I have got a copy of the NCR (Nov 10) through RTI act wherein both (guy and my wife) of them have given to the police in writing that they were deeply in love while working together and wanted to get married. Now the case has come to the trial stage and I have collected following evidences and submitted it to the court as a private complaint as police didn’t add these things into the charge sheet despite of me providing all these documents to them.
- Gold purchase bills before marriage
- Air tickets and immigration stamps on passport showing our holiday travel
- Getting her trained on driving and obtaining driving license in UAE
- Photos taken during various holidays after our marriage
- Hotel stay bills and payments made through credit card during the holidays
- Copy of the NCR from police
- Photos of my wife and her boyfriend before marriage visiting various holiday destinations showing their intimate relationship
Also one of my in-laws relative came forward and made a sworn affidavit stating my family have not made any demands for dowry during the marriage discussions as stated in their complaint. Also two of their neighbors have given sworn affidavit stating there were constant quarrels in their house almost every day after she started to stay with her parents and it was extreme on the day of her death.
My in-laws have filed a case against me and my parents that we have taken 5 lakhs as dowry and were asking further 25 lakhs, this is the reason for their daughter’s death. They have created false statements from some of their relatives substantiating their complaint. As the trial is going to start and evidences will be built-up I have the following questions.
- Can death note be a sole criteria for conviction, can you provide links for any previous judgements in similar cases?
- We were living separately in different countries for more than 3 months before her death and only contact with me was through phone, is this proof enough to prove in court that soon before death there was no instigation from me or my family for her to commit suicide?
- Are the evidences stated above good enough for me to prove in court that I took good care of her when she was with me?
- Can her relationship before marriage and their own statement that they wanted to get married be a reason for her to be unhappy with the marriage and admissible in court of law?
- I have some medical reports stating she was going through depression, Anxiety States to be precise as stated in hospital records. Can I submit this to court as evidence that she was not happy with the marriage due to her previous break up?
- After our marriage she has not stayed more than 7 days with my parents, in such case is there a provision in law that the case against my old parents (nearing 70 years) be dropped and can be pursued only for me?
- I am having problems with my employer as I am taking too frequent leaves to attend court proceedings. Can I take a permanent exemption (section 205 with 313) from attending trial and can attend whenever my presence is needed? Any previous judgements to substantiate my application would be helpful.
I thank you for patiently reading my case and will be indebted for any suggestions/answers you may give to help me fight my case. Though it is very long i intended to give as much information as possible to make reasonable advice.
Thanks in advance.
