Recently, the Calcutta High Court quashed a cheating and fraud case filed against a woman. The husband of the woman was accused of taking away precious ornaments and cell phone from her matrimonial home.
A Single-Judge bench of Justice Shampa Dutt (Paul) noted that the petitioner-woman was married to the complainant-man for the last 29 years and she left her matrimonial house after getting tortured both; mentally and physically.
The bench noted from the material on record, that the woman had taken away- one piece gold Bala (bangle), one Loha covered with gold, two-piece pola, covered with gold, one pair Sankhabadhano churi covered with gold. The bench noted that these ornaments were usually marriage ornaments and thus were worn by traditional Bengali married women.
Apart from that, the petitioner was accused of taking away two mobile phones, one gold chain of her son and one gold necklace belonging to her.
Justice Dutt held in the order, “These ornaments/accessories as described, are worn on a regular basis by a traditional Bengali married woman, who chooses to wear them. The phones which might be for her own use and the ornaments as described, cannot be the basis of a criminal case between a married couple, that too, after 29 years of marriage.“
The bench also said, these allegations solely do not make out any case as alleged by the petitioner.
As a result, while quashing the proceedings, the court opined, “Thus, this is a fit case where the inherent powers of this court should be exercised for ends of justice, to prevent abuse of process of law/court.“
According to the presented facts, the petitioner was married to Siddhartha Bhuiya in 1999 who was an advocate by profession.
However, due to tremendous torture after marriage, she left her matrimonial house in May 2019 after lodging a complaint under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The petitioner argued that the instant complaint against her by the husband was to counter her complaint filed earlier. She alleged that her husband being a legal practitioner misused his status and filed a false and concocted criminal case against her with mischievous intention.
Advocates Sanat Kumar Das, Satadru Lahiri, and Safdar Azam represented the Wife.
Advocate Subham Bhakat appeared for the State.
On the other hand, Advocates Manas Kumar Das and Aritra Kumar Talukder appeared for the Husband.
Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/wife-leaving-matrimonial-house-traditional-marriage-ornaments-cannot-booked-cheating-calcutta-high-court
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