The Hyderabad High Court has refused to quash the criminal proceedings against the accused on the ground that the alleged shameful, barbarous and torturous acts of the accused have still to be investigated by the police.
“The allegations cannot be lightly swept off with a broom of baseless brand,’’ the Court observed.
Justice U Durga Prasad Rao was dismissing a petition filed by Sharwari Alagharu from Bengaluru seeking to quash the criminal proceedings pending against her and family members before the Central Crime Station, Hyderabad.
As for the case details, the petitioner herein (A5) is the married sister of accused number one (A1) and she lives in Bengaluru away from the matrimonial home of the complainant. A1 is the husband of de facto complainant who is a software engineer. The complainant lost her father in her childhood and her mother is an entrepreneur doing family business in Adilabad.
The complainant’s mother gave huge amount as dowry and gold ornaments during the marriage with a fond ope that her daughter’s marital life would be happy. However, her marital bliss was short-lived and the complainant was forced to lodge a complaint in Nov 2013. The Women Police Station, CCS, registered an FIR and started investigating the matter.
The petitioner (A5), who is the sister-in-law of the complainant, approached the High Court seeking to quash the proceedings in FIR registered against her and family members. While A1 is the husband of the complainant, A2 and A3 are parents and A4 and A5 are sisters of A1. In the complaint, she narrated the harassment and torture meted out to her by the accused following the marriage in Feb 2013.
On the other hand, the petitioner (A5) while seeking to allow her petition, submitted to the Court that she never indulged in harassing the complainant and even if the complaint allegations are presumed to be true, none of those allegations would reflect any specific overt acts against her except general and sweeping exaggerations which are false and baseless.
The state public prosecutor vehemently opposed the petition. After perusing the material on record, justice Durga Prasad Rao said that the court cannot agree with the petitioner’s submission that there are no specific allegations against her and other accused. As for the petitioner is concerned, for instance, it is alleged that on the day of marriage reception the petitioner and her another sister forced the complainant to consume alcohol. They allegedly abused her and hurt her in the presence of her relatives and friends when she refused to drink. It is further alleged that after the complainant joined her husband in her marital home, the petitioner and her sister said that they would not allow her to share bedroom with her husband unless she agreed to take drinks. When the complainant refused they made her to sleep in the common hall. To top it all they stripped her of her clothes and warned of throwing her out of the house if she won’t reduce her weight in a month. The accused was made her to work from early morning till late in the night and they also insulted and humiliated her with their words and deeds. The mother-in-law and father- in-law also joined hands and supported A1 and their daughters.
The judge said that apart from some of the specific overt acts attributed against the accused, the atrocities and horrendous acts of the husband and father-in-law of the complainant are to be noted. One of the allegations is that being a sex pervert the husband used to force the complainant to experiment with unusual, unhealthy and vulgar sexual activities. Besides, the father-in-law allegedly threatened the mother of the complainant that he has political influence and criminal background and that he knows the loopholes in the law and nothing will happen to him and his son even if they lodge any complaint against them.
While dismissing the petition, the judge said “It is true, the complaint is recent and investigation is nascent and the truth or otherwise of the shameful, barbarous and torturous acts of the accused have still to be investigated by the police. But as the matter stands, the complainant’s allegations cannot be lightly swept off with a broom of ‘baseless’ brand. Accordingly, I find no merit in the petition.”