ORDER

1. By invoking the inherent power of this Court, the present petition u/S 482 of Cr.P.C. has been preferred by the applicants, seeking quashment of FIR registered at Crime No.354/2013 by P/S Bhawarkuan, Distt - Indore for the offences u/S 498-A, 34, 323 and 506 of IPC against the applicants.

2. Facts leading to filing of present petition, in short, are that complainant/respondent No.2 Smt. Prachi Gupta has lodged the FIR at P/S Bhawarkuan. on 2.4.2023 to the effect that her marriage was solemnized with applicant No.5 Ankit Goyal, on 9.12.2016 as per Hindu rites and rituals. Applicant No.1 – 3 are sisters-in-law and applicant No.4 is fatherin-law of the complainant. Since marriage of the complainant and till 20.12.2016, her sisters-in-law Shilpa and Neha used to live with her and Aditi used to live there only as she was not married. The sister-in-law and husband of the deceased started to taunt her and torture her in furtherance of demand of dowry. Complainant was pushed out of her matrimonial home at night several times and on telling her father-in-law, he said this only should be done to you. When applicant No.3 Aditi returned to her maternal home after marriage, a clash took place between the complainant and Aditi, after which Aditi broke Mangalsutra and laptop of the complainant. On narrating the incident to her husband, husband physically assaulted her. Therefore, on 20.12.2019, she came back to her maternal home in Indore, where she lodged a report at P/S MG Road regarding the incident. But, later a compromise took place between the complainant and her in-laws, where husband agreed to keep her in a proper way in her matrimonial home and took her back to there. On 1.8.2020, applicants No.1 and 2 had come to their maternal home and used to taunt the complainant and abuse her parents. Therefore, on 26.8.2020, she returned again to her maternal home. Parents of the complainant tried to convince the in-laws of complainant, on which the in-laws of complainant abused and did not come to take the complainant back. In Diwali of 2020, she went back to her matrimonial home. Neha had bothered her then to a very great extent and her in-laws physically and mentally tortured her in demand of dowry and gave threat of dire consequences, after which she returned back to her maternal home 20.11.2020 being frightened from the behaviour of her in-laws. She tried to improve the relations a plenty of times, but all in vain. On 04.04.2022, she filed an application for maintenance in Court, on which her in-laws convinced to not press the matter in Court and agreed to take the complainant back to her matrimonial home, but till 2023 no one came to take her back because of which she reported the matter at P/S Bhawakuan.

3. It is contended on behalf of the applicants that the applicants are innocent and have falsely been implicated in the instant crime. Applicants No.1-3 are married and residing in their respective marital home alongwith their children and husbands. The applicant No.4 is aged about 70 years and is suffering with many diseases. Applicant No.5 is a well educated person being a Software Engineer is serving in a reputed company. The complainant does not like her husband and she wants to get divorced from him. For this purpose, she was continuously harassing the whole family of applicant No.5. Maintenance petition filed by the complainant before the Family Court is totally different from the allegation, which has been levelled in the present FIR and this fact shows that a false FIR has been registered by her. The FIR was lodged belatedly and is time barred.

4. It is also submitted that applicant No.4 and 5 had made their all efforts to convince the complainant. Applicant No.5 has also tried to settle the amount for divorce. The relative of both the families had sat together and decided an amount of Rs.11,00,000/- for permanent alimony and a demand draft of the said amount also prepared on 16.03.2022 (Annexure P-5), but the complainant w