Dismissing a case of alleged dowry harassment filed by a woman and her mother, a Delhi court has acquitted the mother-in-law and brother-in-law of the victim.
Acquitting accused Chando Devi, the mother-in-law, and Ashok Kumar, the brother-in-law, the court said: “one-off incident of beating for dowry cannot constitute harassment in a dowry case”.
The husband of the complainant, who was also an accused in the case, died during trial.
In 2007, the R.K. Puram police had registered an FIR against the accused on the basis of a complaint filed by the victim with the Crime Against Women Cell.
The woman had alleged that just a month after she got married in 2002, her husband, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and sister-in-law’s husband had started taunting her for not bringing in enough as dowry.
The victim told the court that her husband, mother-in-law and brother-in-law had beat her up on one occasion for bringing in insufficient dowry. She also said that she was beaten a second time for not doing household chores.
Dismissing her evidence, Metropolitan Magistrate Bhavna Kalia said: “In the present case, there is barely any evidence that the victim was tormented or tortured in order to constitute harassment… One-off incident of beating for dowry cannot constitute harassment in the opinion of the court”.
The Magistrate also dismissed the evidence of the victim’s mother, stating that “her evidence is in the nature of hearsay evidence and, thus, not reliable”.
The court had discharged the complainant’s sister-in-law at the time of framing of charges.
