O R D E R

Dated this the 17^th day of September, 2025 This Criminal Miscellaneous Case is filed seeking to quash Annexure A1 Final Report in Crime No.1671 of 2018 of Ambalapuzha Police Station and all further proceedings in C.C.No.927 of 2019, on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Ambalapuzha. Petitioner is the accused in the said proceedings and is alleged to have committed an offence punishable under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code .

2. Heard Sri.A.S.Shammy Raj, Advocate for the petitioner and Sri.K.Rakesh for the 2^nd respondent. Sri.K.M.Faisal, the learned Public Prosecutor, was also heard.

3. The prosecution's case is principally that the petitioner, who married the de facto complainant on 19.04.2010, had physically and mentally tortured her, demanding more dowry, leading her to prefer the private complaint on 10.08.2018. The petitioner, on the other hand, would contend that the complaint alleging dowry demand and torture is baseless and an afterthought. The same according to him had been filed by the wife, a good eight years after marriage, and that too after the husband preferred a complaint against the wife and her paramour pursuant to which a crime