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aatma   30 July 2010

Suicide is the Only Solution to Get Away from False 498a

The Telegraph 24 July 2010
 
"If there should be a law like 498A to protect housewives from cruel husbands and in-laws, there should also be a law to protect them from the hands of cruel women like my daughter-in-law"
-Suicide note of Prasanta Kumar Ghosh, 71


A septuagenarian father has taken his own life to “save” his son and other tortured husbands.


Prasanta Kumar Ghosh blamed his death on his daughter-in-law’s threats to slap false torture charges and demanded a law to protect husbands and in-laws in such a predicament.


“My daughter-in-law is responsible for my death. I take the decision to end my life only to save thousands of husbands and their family members from the hands of cruel women like her,” the retired government employee in Hooghly’s Mogra wrote in a neatly folded three-page note he left behind in his shirt pocket.


Ghosh’s daughter-in-law was allegedly involved in an extra-marital affair with a cop in the area. “(But) neither me nor my son could protest as she threatened every day that she would lodge a complaint against us under section 498A,” wrote the 71-year-old.

In Calcutta High Court on Friday, Justice A.K. Banerjee read the note at least twice before the division bench, also including Justice R.N. Roy, dismissed the daughter-in-law’s plea for anticipatory bail. The police have charged the 31 year-old daughter-in-law with abetment to suicide.

“I know my letter will reach a judge one day. I would like him to consider my case. If there should be a law like 498A to protect housewives from cruel husbands and in-laws, there should also be a law to protect them from the hands of cruel women like my daughter-in-law,” wrote Ghosh.

Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code was introduced in 1983 to fight harassment for dowry. Under the law, a husband and his relatives can be jailed for life. The “cruelty” charge means immediate arrest and lawyers said the accused had no option but to
wait out the investigation period. "Once the investigation reveals that a false complaint had been lodged, they can sue the woman and her kin," said advocate and ex-mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya. Complaints about the misuse of

Section 498A have been levelled before by in-laws at the receiving end of threats.
Advocate Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee said such complaints were on the rise. “Around four out of 10 complaints of harassment against husbands and in-laws do not stand in court.” Pratip Ghosh found his father hanging at their home in Mogra, about 65km from Calcutta, when he returned home after dropping his six-year-old son at school on June 25. The police found the note in Ghosh’s pocket.

Opposing the daughter-inlaw’s plea for a reprieve, government counsel Pradip Roy furnished a copy of the FIR Pratip had filed after his father’s death. “My wife was adamant in nature and did not want to keep a good relationship with me and my father. In my absence, she used to meet a person (the cop)…. He sometimes came to our house in my absence…. My father had opposed all this... the matter has maligned us in society,” it said. Pratip is married for eight years. Ghosh had initially opposed his son’s relationship with her “but he accepted her after some time”, Pratip wrote in the FIR.

Women’s organisations chose not to read too much into the tragedy. “It is not so easy to misuse the law,” said Indrani Sinha of Sanlaap. “Even if a woman is trying to misuse section 498A, her family, in this case her father-inlaw and husband, could easily have taken precaution in the form of going to the police first and lodging a complaint. If they are innocent, they need not fear.” Sinha also pointed to the domestic violence law that “does try to protect women” but can also “be used by the men, or any member of a family who is facing a problem at home”.



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 5 Replies

Anil Agrawal (Retired)     03 August 2010

If extreme step has to be resorted, why suicide? Why not murder?

Anil Agrawal (Retired)     03 August 2010

Why should there be retirement age for Judges? In USA there is no retirement age. A Judge retires when he choses to do so. Recently, a Supreme Court Judge thought it was time for him to go and he retired at the age of 89!


(Guest)

@ Sh. Anil,

Yes, Hon'ble SC wants to extend their retirement age but what about qualty of justise delivery system in India? Do they want it also to remain in animation stage ! There is huge quality difference between American SC Judges Vs. Hon'ble SCI Judges. So afterall the power of kursi has caught on with Apex Court :-)
 

Prodyut Banerjee (Advocate (Corporate Lawyer))     21 August 2010

The legislature may think of a provision which will cut the throat of the husband and his family members on the complaint of the wife without any trial. At the same time another proviso giving exemption to the wife from Section 302 and other related sections of IPC so that she can slaughter her husband and his family members without any fear!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May god bless  this country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Prodyut Banerjee (Advocate (Corporate Lawyer))     21 August 2010

"Women’s organisations chose not to read too much into the tragedy. “It is not so easy to misuse the law,” said Indrani Sinha of Sanlaap. “Even if a woman is trying to misuse section 498A, her family, in this case her father-inlaw and husband, could easily have taken precaution in the form of going to the police first and lodging a complaint. If they are innocent, they need not fear.” Sinha also pointed to the domestic violence law that “does try to protect women” but can also “be used by the men, or any member of a family who is facing a problem at home”.
 

Myself being a lawyer is scared of the provision and a common man ".......could easily have taken precaution in the form of going to the police first and lodging a complaint. If they are innocent, they need not fear.”  What a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 


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