( 1 ) ON November 19, 1989 Sushma Jain entered into wed lock with Sudhir Kumar. On May 30, 1991 she lodged a report with the police alleging cruelty at the hands of her husband and his other relations. On September 8, 1993 the learned Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate framed charges under section 498-A read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code against the husband Sudhir Kumar, his brother Pawan Kumar Jain, sister Ms. Punam Jain and mother Smt. Supla Devi. By this joint petition they are seeking to get the charges quashed.

( 2 ) IS it that the material on the record spells nothing against the petitioners? Let us have alook at it. First, the First Information Report lodged by the estranged wife Sushma Jain. Its bare perusal would go to show that right from the very start of her matrimonial life her husband Sudhir Kumar, mother-in-law Supla Devi, brother-in-law Pawan Kumar and sister-in-law Punam had been expressing unhappiness over the dowry brought by her and on that score had been taunting and beating her. They would pick up faults with her on trifles and pester her to bring in more cash. She minces no words in mentioning that she was subjected to mental and physical cruelty.

( 3 ) BIMAL Prasad Jain is the father of Sushma Jain. He has been examined under section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. His statement too makes it clear that Sushma Jain used to be taunted, teased and beaten and that when petitioners were approached, instead of showing remorse, they claimed that his daughter was a curse on the family and that they would continue to subject her to the same treatment. The cause, of course, was dissatisfaction over the dowry brought.

( 4 ) ALMOST to the same effect is the statement of Deepak Jain brother of Sushma Jain. Of course, he also tells us that though after the marriage cash payments of Rs. 90,000. 00 had been made yet the in-laws of his sister were not satisfied and continued to treat her cruelly. As per him on January 20, 1991 when the petitioners and other relatives were approached, it was asserted that Sushma Jain was acurse to the family and had brought bad luck and that she would continue to be treated cruelly.

( 5 ) BESIDES the persons referred to above, the Investigating Officer has also recorded the statements of Shakuntala Jain and Paras Dass Jain. Their statements too lend support to the claim of Sushma Jain that on account of dissatisfaction over the dowry brought and on account of lust for more, she was subjected to mental and physical cruelty. It may be noticed that Shakuntala Jain is the mother and Paras Dass Jain, a close relation of the complainant. It need also be mentioned that Paras Dass Jain too was present on January 20, 1991 when she was damned as a curse on the family and when it was further asserted that they would continue to subject her to cruelty.

( 6 ) BESIDES the statements referred to above, there are. four letters also. One of those letters is dated January 15, 1991 and is written by Sushma Jain to her mother. The relevant portion of that letter runs as under:

"i am very tense here. Everybody is harassing me here. Earlier also I had written letters but you were assuring me that everything would be solved by passage of time. But they are harassing me more day by day. I am very tense. "yet another letter which is undated but bears the postal stamp of January 3, 1991 also needs to be mentioned. Sushma Jain wrote it to her father. It runs as under:

"respected Daddy, I am not all right here and you also must be worried there. Here they are troubling me a lot. Two times they have even tried to kill me. lam able to write to you with great difficulty because they do not allow me to go anywhere. My mother-in-law accompanies me even when I go to the tample. They neither allow me to ring up from here and whenever you ring up, they refuse. They tell me that you have no need to touch the phone and neither will you go anywhere. They beat me any time they want. Daddy