The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a bail application in a dowry harassment case. Justice A.M. Basheer Ahamed directed the lower court, where the case is pending, to complete trial in three months.
The accused moved the High Court for bail after the District Court and the Additional Mahila Court rejected his bail application. The man, who was working in the US, and the complainant from Madurai got married in 2001and left for the US. The complainant alleged that she was subjected to harassment by her husband and his family members and was subsequently sent back to India after just nine months of marriage.
She had filed a complaint with the All-Women Police Station, Tallakulam, charging her husband and his family members with dowry harassment which attracted Sections 498A and 406 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3,4 and 6 of The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, on which a warrant was issued in 2004.
The accused failed to appear before the court and filed for divorce in USA and got an ex parte decree in 2004. He married another woman in 2004 and has a 10-year-old son out of his second marriage. The complainant moved the family court in Madurai and filed a petition for Restitution of Conjugal Rights and got an ex parte order in her favour in 2003. The accused moved a petition for quashing the petition filed by the complainant, which was rejected by the High Court.
The case was transferred to the Additional Mahila Court in 2014. In April 2017, it came to the complainant’s knowledge that her husband had moved to India. She moved the court for directions to execute the pending warrant against him. Following this, the Madurai police arrested him in Baroda, Gujarat. He is currently lodged in Madurai Central Prison.
The trial pending in the Additional Mahila Court will come up for hearing on September 5.
