CHAMBA SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two petitions, filed under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C., pray for quashing of FIR No.140, registered at the instance of one Ashok Syal (respondent No.2), on 13.07.2010, at Police Station, A -Division, Amritsar City, in respect of the alleged commission of offences punishable under Sections 498 -A and 406 IPC. The complainant had arraigned the husband of his sister, i.e. Jitender Kumar, her sister -in -law (husbands' sister) Sangeeta @ Samridhi who is the petitioner in CRM -M No.26094 of 2013, one Chamba Singh, (petitioner in CRM -M No.36407 of 2011) who is a cousin of Jitender Kumar.

(2.) THE allegations in the FIR are first with regard to demand of dowry, including cash and a car, immediately after the marriage. Further allegation is that the complainants' sister was not allowed to live with her husband in the same room and consequently, the marriage was never consummated. The complainants' allegation was that his sisters' sister -in -law (Samridhi @ Sangeeta), was very superstitious and on account of that she was not allowing her brother and his wife to live together and, instead, she stayed in her brothers' room, to the exclusion of her Bhabi, i.e. complainants' sister, namely Sharda Rani. It is further stated in the FIR, that the complainants' sister, i.e. Sharda Rani, was thrown out of her in -laws' house two or three times and an application was earlier also submitted to the Police in 2009. At that stage the matter is stated to have been compromised, with the intervention of the "Mahila Mandal", in the presence of respectable persons, consequent upon which Sharda Rani was taken back to her matrimonial home.

(3.) DURING the course of investigation, Sharda Ranis' husband Jitender Kumar, was arrested, though bailed out, and the case property was stated to have been recovered from the accused. Upon inquiry conducted by the SHO, the husbands' sister, i.e. Samridhi @ Sangeeta, and Chamba Singh, were also named as accused, who were then arrested but bailed out, in November 2010. Subsequently, the matter is stated to have been investigated into by the Assistant Commissioner of Police and all the three accused were stated to be involved, as per the report filed under Section 173 Cr.P.C., indicting all 3 of them, in respect of the commission of offences punishable under Sections 498 -A and 406 of the IPC. It has been stated in the petition, and was argued by Mr. Sarju Puri, learned counsel for the petitioners, that Chamba Singh is a cousin of Sharda Ranis' husband and resides separately with his family, and has never interfered in the matrimonial affairs of the complainants' sister.