ARCHANA Vs. UT OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Through the medium of instant petition, the petitioner is seeking a direction to respondent No. 1 to get her statement re-recorded under Sec. 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

(2.) It is the case of the petitioner that an FIR bearing No. 27/2024 for offences under Sec. 376 IPC stands registered against the respondent No. 2 with Police Station, Lakhanpur. It is submitted that the petitioner is the legally wedded wife of one Kulwant Singh. The petitioner was maltreated in her matrimonial home by her husband as well as by her in-laws. It is further submitted that relations between family of in-laws of the petitioner and the family of respondent No. 2 were strained due to some land dispute qua the land falling under Khasra No. 134 and 161 situated at Village Matandi, Tehsil and District Kathua. It is further submitted that the husband of the petitioner and her in-laws, out of ill will and with an ulterior motive to settle the score with the family of the respondent No. 2, forced the petitioner to implicate the respondent No. 2, in a criminal case under Sec. 376 IPC by levelling false and frivolous allegations against him. It is further submitted that when the petitioner declined to level false and frivolous allegations against the respondent No. 2, she was beaten up by her husband and brother-in-law and was threatened that she would be turned out of her matrimonial home along with her minor children. Thus, the petitioner was forced to lodge false and frivolous case against the respondent No. 2 and was forced to get her statement recorded under Sec. 164 Cr. P.C. before the learned Munsiff, Kathua.

(3.) According to the petitioner, the aforesaid statement is not out of her free will and volition and the same does not reflect the true facts and now she wants to make a fresh statement before the Magistrate so as to narrate the correct facts, In this backdrop, the petitioner has sought a direction upon respondent No. 1 for getting her fresh statement recorded under Sec. 164 Cr. P. C.