NEEL DILIP SHAH Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this application under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (the Code), the petitioners seeks quashment of the compliant registered vide Criminal Case No.2163/07 instituted in the Court of the Metropolitan Magistrate, Ahmedabad, Court No.22 for the offence punishable under section 498A of the Code read with sections 34 and 114 of the Code.

(2.) IN brief the facts giving rise to the present petition as stated in the petition are that the marriage of the petitioner No.1 and respondent No.2 was solemnized at Ahmedabad on 20th May, 1990. The matrimonial home is situated at Delhi. Petitioner No.2 and 3 are the parents of petitioner No.1 and petitioner No.4 is the brother of petitioner No.1. Out of the wedlock between petitioner No.1 and respondent No.2 there are two minor sons Tanay and Raj aged 15 and 10 years.

(3.) AFTER their marriage, the petitioner No.1 and respondent No.2 initially resided at Delhi. Thereafter they moved to the Republic of Ireland in September 1993 and lived there till June 1996 after which they moved to London and lived there till 1998. They then moved to Yeovil County Sumerset in U.K. from where they moved to Torquay County Devon in the month of October 1999. Soon after they shifted there, the respondent No.2 deserted petitioner NO.1 and their two children and went to a friend in London and thereafter moved to the U.S.A. where she was living with her brother and then went to Ahmedabad in November/December 1999. In the last week of November 1999, petitioner No.2 came back to India with both the children. Finally, the petitioner No.1 was forced to take a decision to leave his job in the U.K. and return to Indian permanently. He accordingly returned to India in February 2000 and is working as a Senior Consultant Surgeon at the Apollo Hospital, New Delhi. According to the petitioners during the period between October, 1999 to March, 2001 petitioners No.1, 2 and 3 looked after both the children and the respondent No.2 never even bothered to inquire about the children, their education or welfare.