498-A or just 420?

By Desaraju Surya
Vijayawada: One of the most dreaded and abused sections of the Indian Penal Code is 498 (A) --husband or his relatives subjecting a woman to cruelty. A person convicted under this section could attract a prison term of three yearsand\or a fine of Rs 1000. In the Vijayawada police commissionerate,about 1000 cases get registered under this section of IPC every year.However, over 95 per cent of the cases end in compromise between the complainant and the accused. As soon as a case is registered under this section, police rush to arrest the accused -- be it the husband orhis close relatives like mother, father or sister. Though obtaining bail is not that difficult, the trauma of arrest remains. Deep investigations into such cases, over a period of time, revealed that most of the cases were false and filed for flimsy reasons.
Take this example. A couple was married for five years and their relationship was progressing happily. The couple had a child. The woman, somehow, established an illicit relationship with a young neighbour and the husband had no knowledge about the affair. Both the woman and her lover hatched a plan to extract money from the former's husband and promptly she rushed to the city police chief alleging that her husband had been harassing her physically. The police chief (not the incumbent) immediately directed the station house officer of the locality to arrest the husband and the order was promptly complied with. During the courseof the investigation, however, the police established that the husband,working as an executive in a private firm, was a soft-hearted man and had never harassed his wife. But the case dragged to the court and the hapless husband was forced to shell out Rs 3 lakh to his wife. The happy marriage ended in a divorce. "There are many such examples. In my experience I have seen several such falses cases filed against the husbands and in-laws only with ulterior motives. Not that there are no genuine cases but over 90 per cent of the 498 (A) cases are false," said a senior police officer. Of late, some women started filing harassment cases even against her husband's relatives who stayed abroad. This requires the police to investigate deeply into the case even requiring them to nab the accused from overseas. Against such backdrop, the new Commissioner of Police Umesh Sharaff issued clear instructions to the station house officers not to "rush" with the 498 (A) cases. The accused could be arrested only if charges were prima facie established, he told the SHOs. This is a big relief not only to the 'harassed' husbands but also to the investigating officers.