In order to establish the offence of cruelty under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, there must be evidence of willful conduct on the part of the accused person which is of such a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health (whether mental or physical) of the woman, or harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand.

1. TWO revisional applications being CRR 3835 of 2007 and CRR 3864 of 2007 are directed against an order dated 10th July, 2007 passed by the learned Judicial Magistrate, Raiganj, Uttar Dinajpur in G.R. Case No. 87 of 2005. Both the said revisional applications are accordingly taken up for hearing together.

2. HEARD learned Counsel for the petitioners in the said two cases and Mr. Mallick as learned Counsel appearing for the opposite party/State in CRR 3835 of 2007 and Mr. Ahmed appearing as learned Counsel for the opposite party/State in CRR 3864 of 2007. Mr. De, who appears as learned Counsel for the private opposite party No. 2, is heard as well. Perused the materials in the case diary.

Learned Counsel for the petitioners submits that the learned trial Court failed to take into consideration the fact that there is neither any iota of material nor any evidence so as to implicate the present petitioner with the alleged offence under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. It is further submitted that the marriage between the parties has ended in Talak and that too, before the alleged incident it could not be said that Rejaul Islam was the husband of the alleged victim. Stretching this a little further it is further contended that other petitioners thus could not also be implicated as they are also not members of the family of the husband.

3. SECTION 498A of the Indian Penal Code reads as follows :

"S. 498A-Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty.- Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine. Explanation.- For the purpose of this section, 'cruelty' means- a) any willful conduct which is of such a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health (whether mental or physical) of the woman, or b) harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand"

4. LEARNED Magistrate in the impugned order quite rightly mentioned that even prima facie material or something more than mere suspicion is enough of justification for framing of charge in a case instituted on a police report. The question in this case is whether there is any such material at all. How far the claim that there had been a valid Talak between the alleged victim and the petitioner Rejaul Islam, is true not a matter for adjudication at this stage. It could best be ascertained at the time of trial. But in order to mature the case for the purpose of trial, charge is required to be framed. LEARNED Counsel for the petitioner has sought to strike the prosecution case at its root while mentioning that there is not even an iota of evidence, so as to implicate the present petitioners with the alleged offence under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Court in the impugned order has referred to various decisions but I do not think that an analysis of legal principles emerging there from is necessary for the purpose of deciding the instant revisional applications.

The crux of the controversy is whether there is any material worth mentioning so as to indicate that there had been any act of cruelty on the part of the petitioners inflicted on the unfortunate alleged victim. After careful consideration of the averments made in the First Information Report and on scrutiny of various statements recorded in Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, I fail to find any such evidence showing that any of these petitioners ever inflicted any kind of torture, mental or physical or otherwise in order to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security. It is true that 'cruelty' means any willful conduc