‘Law enforcement agencies must have better understanding of Section 498A’
6 Aug 2014 12:31 AM GMT
On this particular offence, Supreme Court has recently made the observation and asked the police to verify reasons provided in the check list before arrest.
The magistrate’s observations came while acquitting Mukesh Singh, a resident of Lal Kaun in New Delhi, who had been arrested for cruelty to his wife Poonam after she drowned in a pond under mysterious circumstances. ‘It involves series of systematic, persistent and wilful acts perpetrated with a view to make the life of the woman so burdensome or in-supportable that she may be driven to commit suicide because of having been fed up with marital life,’ said Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan.
The court said that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the essential elements of cruelty within the meaning of Section 498A IPC. ‘The allegation of cruelty and beatings are not corroborated by medical evidence when the same could have been brought on record,’ said the court, adding that there is no prior complaint by Poonam or her parents.
Section 498A defines cruelty as ‘the acts or conduct should be such that which may cause danger to life, limb or health or cause grave injury or of such a degree that may drive a woman to commit suicide.’
Poonam’s father Charni Singh had filed the complaint against Mukesh and alleged that he would regularly beat his wife after having a few drinks. ‘She even returned to my house after repeated and frequent abuses’, he told police.
The village panchayat eventually convinced Charni and Poonam to give Mukesh a second chance. Then, two days before his daughter went missing, Mukesh had made dowry demands, Charni said.
However, during investigation, it was found that Poonam slipped into the pond while she and her niece Anita had gone into the forest to answer nature’s call. The young girl deposed before that court that she and one other person tried to rescue Poonam. But, it was too late by the time her body was finally dredged up.
The magistrate’s observations came while acquitting Mukesh Singh, a resident of Lal Kaun in New Delhi, who had been arrested for cruelty to his wife Poonam after she drowned in a pond under mysterious circumstances. ‘It involves series of systematic, persistent and wilful acts perpetrated with a view to make the life of the woman so burdensome or in-supportable that she may be driven to commit suicide because of having been fed up with marital life,’ said Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan.
The court said that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the essential elements of cruelty within the meaning of Section 498A IPC. ‘The allegation of cruelty and beatings are not corroborated by medical evidence when the same could have been brought on record,’ said the court, adding that there is no prior complaint by Poonam or her parents.
Section 498A defines cruelty as ‘the acts or conduct should be such that which may cause danger to life, limb or health or cause grave injury or of such a degree that may drive a woman to commit suicide.’
Poonam’s father Charni Singh had filed the complaint against Mukesh and alleged that he would regularly beat his wife after having a few drinks. ‘She even returned to my house after repeated and frequent abuses’, he told police.
The village panchayat eventually convinced Charni and Poonam to give Mukesh a second chance. Then, two days before his daughter went missing, Mukesh had made dowry demands, Charni said.
However, during investigation, it was found that Poonam slipped into the pond while she and her niece Anita had gone into the forest to answer nature’s call. The young girl deposed before that court that she and one other person tried to rescue Poonam. But, it was too late by the time her body was finally dredged up.
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