Allegations of dowry harassment in matrimonial disputes must be specific, not vague; otherwise, they may constitute an abuse of process and warrant quashing of charges against the accused.

JUDGMENT :

BIBEK CHAUDHURI, J.

1. The petitioners are the accused persons in connection with Pirpainti P.S. Case No. 312 of 2022 dated 21.09.2022 registered for the offences under Sections 34 1, 323, 498A, 307, 120B, 504, 506/34 of the INDIAN PENAL CODE .

2. The informant/respondent No. 6 is the legally wedded wife of the petitioner No. 2. Their marriage was solemnized on 29.05.1996 according to Hindu rites and ceremonies in Bhagalpur. After marriage, she went to her matrimonial home at Gaya and then shifted to Patna, where her husband has been working as an Advocate of Patna High Court. In the wedlock between the parties, the respondent No. 6 gave birth to one daughter and one son, who are now aged about 16 years and 10 years respectively.

3. It is alleged by the informant that her husband is addicted to alcohol and under the influence of alcohol, he used to misbehave with her. He often threatened her with dire consequences and made her afraid by opening fire in air from his licensed gun. The husband of the informant used to assault her physically. He also mixed intoxicated drugs in a glass of milk and compelled his wife to consume the said milk forcibly. The informant narrated the said incidents to her maternal uncle, however; to save her marriage and to protect her family’s prestige, she ignored all those acts of cruelties. The informant also informed about the said incidents to her sister-in-law (petitioner no. 3), brother-in-law (petitioner no. 4) and mother- in-law (petitioner no. 1) that her husband demanded a sum of Rs. 25,00,000/- (Rupees Twenty Five Lakhs only) to be brought from her maternal uncle for the purpose of purchasing a flat in the name of her husband. Her maternal uncle failed to pay the said money and thereafter, the husband of the informant increased the level of cruelty upon his wife. It is also alleged that her husband has illicit affairs with one Shobha Puri. At this, the husband of the informant told petitioner no. 1, 3 and 4 to take informant to his ancestral house at Gaya failing which he would kill her. The petitioners no. 1, 3 and 4 brought the informant to Gaya. The petitioner no. 1 again informed the maternal uncle of the informant to give the informant’s husband a sum of Rs. 25,00,000/- as per his demand. When he expressed his inability, petitioners no. 1 and 3 told her maternal uncle to take the informant back to his house. The informant was taken to the house of her maternal uncle along with her children. Subsequently, the maternal uncle of the informant was compelled to pay a sum of Rs. 25,00,000/- to the husband of the informant after selling one-third shares of the paternal property of the informant. In this way, the informant was subjected to cruelty on illegal demand of dowry.

4. On the basis of the said FIR, Pirpainti PS Case No. 312 of 2022 dated 21^st September 2022, was registered against the petitioners.

5. It is already stated that the petitioner no. 1 is the mother-in-law, petitioner no. 2 is the husband, petitioner no. 3 and 4 are sister-in-law and elder brother-in-law respectively of the informant and petitioner no. 5 is a distant matrimonial relation, who stays at Raghunathpur Mathia within Police Station Vikram in the District of Patna. It is submitted on behalf of the petitioners that they are innocent, they did not commit any offence and they have been falsely implicated in the present case which is evident from the FIR. All the family members of the petitioner no. 2 we