Fast Track Mahila Court has convicted a lawyer practising in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, and awarded him 10 years’ imprisonment on a charge of harassing his wife for dowry, leading to her suicide within a year of marriage.
P. Jayaraj, Sessions Judge, Fast Track Mahila Court, convicted the lawyer, S. Calvin Christopher (38), and acquitted his mother Usha Vasuki.
The judge, who delivered the judgement on Wednesday, held Christopher guilty under Section 498(A) (subjecting wife to cruelty) and 304 (B) (dowry death), and awarded one year imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹5,000 and 10 years’ imprisonment respectively. The sentences would run concurrently.
Christopher, son of Samuel Raj, former public prosecutor in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, was present in the court with his mother when the judgement was delivered. Soon after the verdict, the police remanded him in Madurai Central Prison. Samuel Raj, who was also accused in the case, died during the trial.
The CB-CID case was that Nishana Jayamalar (25), daughter of Michael Stephen, a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), was working as a lecturer in The American College, Madurai, when she got married to Christopher on July 2, 2009. Her family gave 102 sovereigns of gold jewellery to the groom as dowry.
Soon after the marriage, Christopher and his parents started harassing Jayamalar, and forced her to undergo a cosmetic surgery for correction in the nose. Even after the surgery, they criticised her facial features, the police said.
Later, they sent her to her parents’ home asking her to bring ₹5 lakh for buying a car. As they continued to harass her, Jayamalar committed suicide by consuming poison on April 19, 2010, the CB-CID police said.
After Jayamalar’s mother M. Sathyavani Ponrani lodged a complaint, Oomachikulam police registered case against Christopher and his parents. The case was transferred to Madurai CB-CID on October 6, 2010, and DSP Dayalan Tamizhselvan and Inspector Jayachandran investigated the case.
The case was transferred to the Fast Track Mahila Court here on the orders of the High Court after the complainant expressed apprehension that the trial would not be fair if it was held in Madurai as the accused and his father were practising in the Madurai Bench and the District Court.
