JUDGMENT :

ABHAY S. WAGHWASE, J.

1. Instant criminal application, at the instance of applicants herein, is by invoking Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, praying for quashment of crime and charge-sheet arising out of complaint lodged at the instance of present respondent No. 2.

2. Brief facts of the case are as under:

Applicant No. 1 is husband and applicant Nos. 2 and 3 are in-laws of respondent No. 2, applicant No. 4 is brother-in-law of respondent No. 2 and applicant No. 5 is grandmother-in-law of respondent No. 2.

3. In the FIR complainant-Jayshri Aniket Chavan (respondent No. 2) alleged that she was married to applicant No. 1 on 24th May, 2014. Her husband is conducting business of mineral water at Nighoje, Chakan, Tq. Khed, District Pune. That after marriage she came to reside with her husband and in-laws, where all the applicants are staying together. It is the case of the complainant that, for a week after the marriage, she was treated properly by her in-laws. However, subsequently, husband and all her in-laws taunted her saying that proper honours were not given to them in the marriage, and therefore, she should bring Rs.2,00,000/- and she alleged that on such count they beat her and subjected her to physical ill-treatment. According to the complainant, her father came at her matrimonial house and gave understanding to her husband and in-laws that he will fulfill their demand of Rs.2,00,000/-. Thereafter, she was treated properly for six months. But again after six months, ill-treatment was resumed. She was abused, kept starved and driven out of the house. According to her, demand of Rs.2,00,000/- was met by her parents. Thereafter, after few days, again in-laws put up demand of Rs.5,00,000/- for expanding the business. According to her, finally, on 5th October, 2017, applicants beat her and threatened to kill her and her son and had driven both of them out of the house. Therefore, she approached Police and registered aforesaid crime against the applicants.

4. It is in the above background applicants approached this Court for relief of quashment and for nullifying the criminal proceedings initiated against them.

Learned Advocate for the applicants submitted that complaint is motivated one. According to him, there was no demand of money and there was no ill-treatment to respondent No. 2, either physical or mental, at the hands of the applicants. According to him, on the contrary, complainant herself was not interested in cohabiting with her husband after marriage. She was insisting for going back to her parental home repeatedly. Thereafter, she made demand of separate residence and she was not ready to live with her in-laws. She repeatedly used to go to her parents’ home and never returned to her matrimonial house on her own, until brought back. It is pointed out that because of her unwillingness to cohabit, after several attempts, applicant No. 1 husband was constrained to apply for divorce. She did not respond. Therefore, trial Court was constrained to proceed in her absence and ex-parte divorce decree was passed by the learned Civil Judge, Senior Division, Khed (Rajgurunagar), District Pune in Divorce Petition No. 25 of 2018 by Judgment and order dated 23rd April, 2018. It is emphasized that on getting knowledge of the same, with an oblique motive to harass the applicants, present complaint has been fled. It is malicious prosecution without a grain of truth and it is mere attempt to harass applicant No. 1 husband and his relatives with revengeful attitude. Therefore, according to him, continuation of such proceeding is clear abuse of process of law and hence, he prayed for relief as sought in the application.

5. On behalf of respondent No. 1-State, learned APP submits that applicants are named in the complaint. Their roles are also defined. All the applicants mal-treated the complainant jointly. There is ample evidence in the form of statements of relatives. Investigation is complete. There being sufficient evid