AMIT KUMAR GUPTA Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both the petitions are taken up together arising out of Chandwa P.S. Case No. 90 of 2006, corresponding to G.R. No. 363 of 2006 for the alleged offence under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code as also under Section 3/4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act for the common cause of action against the petitioners brought about by the informant O.P No. 2-Ram Nath Gupta.

(2.) The common issue in both the petitions is for quashment of the common First Information Report including the entire criminal proceeding of the petitioners, now pending before the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Latehar.

(3.) The law was set in motion on the written report presented by the informant-Opposite Party No. 2 before the Officer-in-Charge of Chandwa Police Station, Latehar narrating that he had married his daughter Priyanka Gupta with the petitioner Amit Kumar Gupta of village Dankinganj. P. S. Katra within the District of Mirjapur (U.P.) and after the marriage his daughter accompanied her husband to Mumbai where his son-in-law Amit Kumar Gupta was working at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Anusiki Nagar but soon thereafter it was alleged that his son-in-law started extending torture to her in various ways for dowry. The conduct of her husband was apprised by his daughter Priyaka Gupta and pursuant to her repeated appeals, he visited Mumbai on 8-4-2006 but his son-in-law refused to meet him and it was alleged that in his presence itself the petitioner-husband Amit Kumar Gupta threatened to commit murder of Priyanka lest the informant would deliver a sum of Rs. two lakh in cash being the dowry. He tried to pacify the matter but of no avail. His other relations also came to Mumbai and tried to bring the normalcy in the family but the petitioner husband reiterated his demand in their presence also and sensing the gravity of situation he returned back to his village home Chandwa (Latehar) taking back his daughter Priyanka with him. After few days, the father of his son-in-law Amaresh Chand Gupta and his mother Shiva Devi telephoned him at Chandwa to return his daughter Priyanka with Rs. 2 lakh so that she could be accepted in their family with dignity. Pursuant to such call, the informant went to Mirjapur and contacted his brother-in-law Ganesh Prasad Gupta, who had acted as middle man in arranging the marriage and both went to the matrimonial home of Priyanka. The informant explained sequence of events before the petitioner father-in-law and the mother-in-law that he had already spent according to his commitment and capacity yet he assured to fulfill part of their demand but they were consistent in their demand of Rs. 2 lakhs in cash. He attempted to convene a Panchayati on this issue with the assistance of common friends and relations but his Samdhi Amaresh Chand Gupta, son-in-law Amit Kumar Gupta, second son Deepak Kumar and his wife Shiva Devi refused to budge from their stand. The informant further alleged that his daughter went into mental depression on account of sufferings caused by her husband and in-laws and requested the police to take legal action.