Dear Members,
Your views and opinion sought on the following case:
1. Through arranged marriage, a girl is married by her parents to a boy who along with his parents are residing in the same town in 2004. Decent amount of money was spent on the marriage and the dowry. Elder sister of the boy is a foreign citizen and is residing and working in her adopted country for 10-12 years alongwith her husband and children. The other sister also is permanent residence holder of that foreign country.
2. By the end of 2004 the couple are blessed with a baby boy. The girl along with the newly born are dumped at her parents' house. About a month later, the girl's sister in laws come to visit India and call the girl's parents to their house where they along with the boy and his parents list out their demands along with complaints of their monetary expectations not having been met. They did not even allow the parents to meet the girl.
3. Subsequent to this meeting all the contacts of the girl with her parents and other relatives were broken. Her mobile and other landline numbers were disconnected. Common family friends tried to counsel the boy and his family but they would not listen. Everyone advised the girl's parents that as boy and his family were not allowing the girl to meet her parents, the parents should let the things settle down and not try to see or meet the girl as with the passage of time things would improve. The girl also did not protest much as she wanted her matrimonial home to remain intact.
4. After things not improving and not having seen their daughter for more than a year, in the end of 2005 the girl's parents again went to their daughter's matrimonial home uninvited. During this meeting they were abused and manhandled by the boy and the dowry demand reiterated by the boy which was recorded. In 2006 the couple are again blessed with their second baby boy. The girl's parents are again not allowed to meed the daughter or her new borns.
5. In Feb/Mar 2007 the girl is not traceable. As earlier, the girl's parents saw her at least from outside her matrimonial home when they passed by that road. On asking her husband on his mobile, the girl's parents were told it was NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS to enquire about their daughter as she was now his wife and that she did not wish to meet them. When even through common friends he did not divulge the whereabouts of the girl and the kids, the parents of the girl got worried about her safety and lodged a police complaint. The police itself filed an FIR on that basis. The boy went underground and applied for an anticipatory bail. The boy's other sister who was in India kept dodgning the police about his whereabouts. The matter proceeded to court after he was granted bail (the girl's parents were not informed about by the police or the court about the bail application). There he told the court that the girl was in the same foreign country where his elder sister was a citizen. He produced in COurt affidavits signed by the girl under pressure stating that she was ok and that she did not want to meet her parents.In the meantime, the police and the Public prosecutor both connived with the boy and the police investigations were completely one-sided and recommended quashing of the FIR. The Court ordered the girl to be produced. In the meantime, the boy misled the girl's parents to withdraw the case and that he would produce the girl in India. As soon as this was stated in the court, the guy flew to his elder sister in the foreign country.
6. The girl's parents realised that they had been misled and filed an application with the HC which again relied on the affidavits of the girl under pressure and the parents lost the case there. The parents filed a case with the SC and again lost the case on the basis of the girl's affidavits under pressure.
7. Eventually during the end of 2008, the girl managed to inform the police of the foreign country and was rescued with her two children and given accomodation in womens refuge. The boy immediately took restraining orders for the children to not be removed out of that foreing country. The police investigations were not very encouraging as they donot have believe in any such thing as dowry, or harassment or killing for it. The girl fought the case with the help of a legal aid lawyer against the boy who had hired the top most Lawyer who generally fought murder and other complex cases. The legal aid lawyer clearly told the girl not to expect much from her as she was not paid enough for her legal aid work.
7. In the meantime, the boy produces a false medical certificate dated 2006 from India stating that the girl was suffering possibly from schizophrenia. The foreign Court because of his reputed lawyer as against her legal aid lawyer and because of the false medical report turned more favourable towards the boy. The girl knew that she was trying to be portrayed as mentally unstable so that not only she loses the custody of the children but also that whatever DV and other charges she presses against him are not believed by the court. She got indications that she would be made to undergo examination in a Psychiatric hospital in that foreign country where the boy and his sisters had already made pre-arrangements in that hospital and that she would be held back there. She decided to fight the case from India. But before that to prove herself she got herself examined by an independent and qualified psychiatrist there and also in India on her return. SHE CAME TO INDIA WITH A HEAVY HEART as she was forced to leave her children behind because of the restraining order on the children prohibiting their removal from that foreign country. After her return to India, the foreign country family court , decided in favour of the boy and the girl's independent medical reports obtained by her both from the foreign country and India were not taken into consideration by the court.
8. Again in India, the police which had already been bought over by the boy was uncooperative. The girl also came to know that the I.O (Investigating officer) who was earlier handling the complaint/FIR filed by her parents was a long time friend of the boy and that is the reason the FIR quashing was recommended earlier by the police. The girl has filed cases in the family/sessions court with very long dates. The boy and his family in the foreign country donot accept the summons from the court and the summons are returned undelivered.
CONCERNS AND ADVICE SOUGHT ON:
1. If the girl was mentally unsound in 2006 as claimed by the false medical document produced by the boy, HOW COME her affidavits obtained under pressure and produced by the boy in the court during that time were valid?
2. The boy used the tactic of using Indian documents in the foreign country and foreign documents in India fully knowing that there was no independent and reliable mechanism in either of the countries to get those documents verified in the other country.
3. There has been no action taken against his friend -the investigating officer who earlier prepared the report for quashing of the FIR filed by her parents despite the girl having filed a complaint against the IO on her return. Instead the boy and his family are instead sending false and imaginary complaints to the local police through email that they are being harassed by the girl and her family and that they even tried to break the locks of the matrimonial home etc.etc. And as expected, the biased police listened to their complaint and not the girl's complaints.
4. The girl feels helpless as the legal process may take years and years. She has lost everything - does not have the children with her who are too young to live without their mother, lost on all her career opportuninties for all these years.
5. The guilty are scott free and enjoying their lives abroad and the girl hear sees no end to her travails with the judicial process likely to take years to come to conclusion and even after that there is no surety that she would get her children back and the guilty punished. JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED. Is it not? The boy and the rest of his family are trying to get the foreign country citizenship and as soon as they get it they would be out of the purview of Indian law.
We say that there are so many laws in favour of girls. But what use are those laws when they are so conveniently and easily manipulated by anyone with the help of the corrupt police and elements in the judiciary?
Abhay
