NAUSHAD ALAM Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner has invoked the inherent jurisdiction of this Court under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure for the quashment of the order dated 22.03.2007 passed by the S.D.J.M., Madhupur at Deoghar in P.C.R. No. 399 of 2006 by which cognizance of the offence was taken against him under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) The prosecution story in short was that the complainant-O.P. No. 2 claimed to be the wife of Petitioner-Naushad Alam, pursuant to a "Nikah" which was performed on 23.04.2002 and after consummation of their marriage two children were born to them, one of them was son and another was daughter. For the last three years, the Complainant O.P. No. 2 alleged that the Petitioner husband demanded Hero Honda motorcycle to be brought from her parental home and in this connection he subjected her to mental and physical cruelty. The matter was informed to her father, who came to the house of the Petitioner who tried to pacify the matter and requested him to keep and maintain his daughter peacefully and then he returned back. The accused then became more violent after the return of the father on the complainant as a result of which she fell ill and no treatment was extended. Her father came and provided medical aid. It was alleged that on 17.06.2006 all the accused persons retained all her jewelleries and the husband Petitioner Md. Naushad Alam took her to Madhupur with her two children and left all of them at the Madhupur Railway Station uncared with the caution that she would be killed if she would return without fulfilling his demand. All pursuasion made by her father failed for "Rukshadi" of his daughter to her matrimonial home and then he wrote letters to the Secretary, President and other Members of Anjuman Committee, Sitala narrating the miseries of his daughter but of no avail. However, it was alleged that on the given date and time of occurrence the accused persons came to the parental home of the complainant at Panhaiyatola and threatened in clear words that the complainant would be accepted only on fulfillment of their demand and returned back. It was further alleged that the Petitioner husband extended threat that the complainant and his father would be implicated in false cases by registering it in different States. Lastly on 25.09.2006 the complainant went to the Police Station to lodge a case which was not accepted and only then the complaint case for the alleged offence under Sections 323/379/498A/406 of the Indian Penal Code against three named accused persons but the cognizance of the offence was taken only against the Petitioner husband Md. Naushad Alam for the offence under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.

(3.) Learned Counsel Mr. Jitendra Nath assailed the impugned order by which cognizance of the offence was taken under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code against the husband-Petitioner on the sole ground that no part of the alleged occurrence took place within the territorial jurisdiction of S.D.J.M., Madhupur at Deoghar and therefore, the cognizance of the offence was barred by territorial jurisdiction under Section 177 Code of Criminal Procedure as the S.D.J.M., Madhupur at Deoghar was not within his competence to do so. As a matter of fact, the occurrence did not take place in the manner presented by the complainant rather the Petitioner-husband consistently visited her parental home to take her back to his home and on 25.06.2006 he was not allowed even to meet his wife and was asked to come along with 5 other persons for her "Rukshadi", the learned Counsel added. The Petitioner-husband was apprehensive that he might be implicated in any false case, he, as such, filed anlnformatory Petition in the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Giridih vide Misc. Application No. 1897 of 2006 on 05.09.2006 stating all the relevant facts and informed the C.J.M., Giridih that there was chance of his false implication in any criminal case at the instance of his wife Sabina Begam and her father and requested to keep the informatory in the record for future use.