Delhi Police rapped for filing dowry cases without proper probe

NEW DELHI - A day after the Supreme Court held that a person cannot be convicted for merely demanding dowry, the Delhi High Court Friday pulled up the Delhi Police for registering a case of dowry against a person without carrying out a proper probe.

While granting bail to a person arrested under the dowry act, Justice S.N. Dhingra observed that before registering an FIR, the police must investigate the allegations levelled against a person in a detailed manner.

As per the prosecution, the complainant in the case, Ramesh Chand had alleged his daughter Geeta’s brother-in-law, Jaipal and sister-in-law used to physically harass her. Geeta had married Mahadev Feb 16.

In his complaint, Ramesh Chand mentioned that during marriage, his daughter’s father-in-law demanded a car which they could not give. After two months of the marriage, Mahadev started beating her. Also according to prosecution, Geeta’s brother-in-law also harassed her, asking her to bring more dowry. Geeta committed suicide June 26.

While submitting his bail plea before the court, Jaipal contended that he did not demand anything either from Geeta or from any other member of her family.

“He was not involved in any act pertaining to the cruelty for any demand of dowry. There is absolutely no allegation in the entire prosecution story that the petitioner was involved in committing any act which can be covered under the four corners of the sections 498-A (Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and 304-B (dowry death) of IPC (Indian Penal Code),” submitted Amit Sahney, his counsel.

He also said that the police registered a case against him only on the allegations of Ramesh Chand. “Police could not find anything incriminating against him. The entire story of the prosecution is based on surmises and conjectures and there is absolutely nothing on record against him,” he submitted.