KOCHI: The city police have launched a probe into a harassment complaint filed by a woman against her husband, alleging that he took her savings deposit claiming it to be her dowry. The woman alleged her husband refused to return the amount which she had transferred to his account when she moved from Doha to Muscat, where the latter is employed.
Based on the woman’s complaint filed on October 4, a case was registered at the Kalamassery station with her husband and father-in-law as the first and second accused respectively, under IPC Sections 498A and 34. As per the complaint, the couple’s marriage was on January 31, 2020, and after 10 days of her stay at the husband’s house in Ernakulam, the woman returned to her workplace in Doha, while her husband went to Muscat. Though they both returned to Ernakulam by the end of February 2020, they again went back to their workplaces on March 1, 2020.
However, on January 14, 2021, she quit her job in Doha and went to Muscat to live with her husband. While shifting to Muscat, she transferred her bank deposit of Rs 29.75 lakh into her husband’s account on the condition that the amount would be returned once she opens a bank account in Muscat. But the husband refused to return the amount saying it was her dowry, the complaint stated.
The woman submitted that though she could get Rs 19 lakh from her husband after much persuasion, she was yet to get the balance amount. “We have launched a detailed probe into the case. Preliminary probe revealed that there is a marital discord between the couple and they were levelling allegations against each other,” said an officer.
Father-in-law avails of anticipatory bail
Meanwhile, the woman’s 73-year-old father-in-law (second accused) has availed an anticipatory bail in the case from a local court, submitting that he was falsely implicated in the case as a pressure tactic by the woman to compel his son for a divorce by mutual consent.