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Vague allegations made against every member of the family of husband cannot be accepted by any court at their face value and the allegations must be scrutinized by the Court before framing charge.
One of the most common complaints most wives and their parents file against the husband and his parents beyond 498a is that of DOWRY
Furthermore, the intelligent ones will also produce the jewelry bills, money transactions beyond bank in CASH and much more to demonstrate DOWRY is given as and when the boy and his family asked for the same.
On receiving a call from the Police Station the first thing the husband and his family get into a PANIC STAGE and jump into a compromise situation, anger is a common emotion and thoughts of vengeance and various emotive responses trigger.
The latest report compiled by the Ministry of Home Affairs can be accessed following the link below, the statistics of crime against women is described between Page No. 133 and Page No. 184.
http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/CII/CII2016/pdfs/Crime%20Statistics%20-%202016.pdf
While the report shows approximately 5.5 Lakh cases of 498a / Dowry are registered at least 70% are acquittals and the wife is unable to prove the charges against them. It’s a misuse of the provision and many people are using this a weapon against men and their family members to settle the scores.
The men who are unable to battle such issues successfully suffer depression an also sometimes take a step of committing suicide.
While there are multiple ways to battle false case, here is one as a case study I can share with the readers of my blog post which they can successfully use.
HOW TO FIGHT FALSE DOWRY CASE
Step 1 : Face the Police without fear, you will not be arrested immediately, only after investigation the next steps will be taken by the Police. Seek intervention from a lawyer if needed.
Step 2 : If you evade the cops, the chances are an FIR will be registered against you and you may get arrested, you can exercise your right for a Anticipatory bail or get a regular bail and be prepared to file the allegations against you.
Step 3 : Counter Attack is the best defense, in most of the cases I have seen and dealt with the charges against the husband and his family may be fabricated and the jewelry bills submitted will be false. Go back to your financial statements and make a detailed list of items exchanged as gifts, the monetary transactions occurred in Cash / Bank and keep it handy.
Step 4 : File an RTI and get the bills the complainant has attached to support her claims. Tally them with the statements and list you have prepared to understand how far the claims are true. Also, check your wardrobes / lockers to ensure if you have them or not. Sometimes the ornaments may belong to your wife (Sthreedhan) who would have left it in the home or purchases were made either by you or her own salary. Such purchases are not terms as dowry.
Step 5 : File an RTI and get the bills the complainant has attached to support her claims.
Step 6 : If you happen to discover based on your homework that the bills / receipts are false, File a Sales Tax evasion petition with the Trade & Tax department. Chances are the jeweler will be subjected to inquiry and don’t be surprised he too will face the brunt of conspiring in this case
Step 7 : Furthermore continue the attack, because attack is the best defense you can file a case of submitting false documents to the court under section 156. Not limiting here you can also file multiple cases invoking various section of IPC like 120B (Criminal Conspiracy), 191 (False Evidence), 197 (False certificate), 499/500 (Defamation), 420 (Cheating), Section 9 of CPC for damage recovery, 468, 471,474 etc.. (Forgery of documents against jeweler and other parties)
In my opinion and 12+ years of handling family matters I can broadly classify, the failure of marriage due to the following three reasons
- Infrastructure and Privacy of the couple: In India, especially the metros people living in 2BHK have hardly any privacy for their conjugal life, and the wife for sure feels uncomfortable living in a joint family which the husband needs to realize and work out a win-win plan. Staying nuclear is a good option provided one can afford. Staying in a joint family, the girl needs to be given enough time to settle down, especially its crucial and important for the husband to pay a pivotal role in managing the relationship between his parents and wife, especially the Mother-In-Law, Sister-In-Law and Daughter-In-Law.
- Financial Challenges: Like it or not, expectation management and being realistic is very important in early married days, ensure your finances are managed carefully, credit card bills, and cashflow is critical. Save for a rainy day, and both spouses equally contribute their salaries towards the home they wish to build. It is the duty of the husband to win confidence of the wife and ensure she does not feel insecure parting her earnings towards the common goals.
- Infidelity: No Thanks to social media and online dating apps that lure both men and women towards such activities. What starts as a casual online friendship end up with something serious, many a couples I have counselled and spoken with related to the above two triggers and feel disassociated with their spouse and seek for a friend to share their experiences to begin with but later such episodes turn serious and are the cause for the marriage to break.
Further to the above three, there are many other causes which are less than 25% compared to the above three.
Trust this blog post is helpful and the reader has gained a fair knowledge on the possible steps to follow, nonetheless there are multiple ways to tackle the issues this was just one such. If you need assistance / support or need to discuss about your situation, feel free to drop a note to me at mail@lawyersonia.com or call at 9845944896.
Feel free to share your feedback / comment on this post.
