Court clears husband, 4 others in cruelty case

Thane: A court in Maharashtra’s Thane district has acquitted a man and four of his other family members accused of subjecting his wife to cruelty, noting the woman “resiled” and did not support her own version.

Additional Sessions Judge Amit M Shete, in the order passed on April 3, gave benefit of doubt to the accused and held the prosecution has failed to prove the charges against all of them and hence they need to be acquitted. A copy of the order was made available on Monday. Those acquitted include the woman’s 34-year-old husband, her in-laws, sister-in-law and a brother-in-law who is an Army man.

They were charged under various Indian Penal Code sections, including 498-A (cruelty), 313 (causing miscarriage without woman’s consent), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult), 506 ( criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention). The prosecutor told the court that the woman got married on August 3, 2013. Her husband and in-laws then started harassing her mentally and physically over household work, dowry demand of Rs 4 lakh. The accused used to keep her starving and torture her by assaulting and threatening her. While the informant (victim) was pregnant, her husband also assaulted her in the stomach, due to which she suffered a miscarriage.