Hyderabad: A bench of Telangana High Court, comprising Justice EV Venugopal, has observed that omnibus allegations under Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code do not warrant prosecution.
In a case involving dowry harassment and domestic abuse, the petitioners, including the complainant’s in-laws and relatives, were charged. The complainant claimed that the petitioners, including her husband, repeatedly sought dowry and subjected her to cruelty.
After carefully examining the claims, Justice Venugopal concluded that they were insufficient under Section 498-A, which states that “whoever, being a husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished.”
The court noted that, while a charge sheet was initially filed against the husband only, an additional charge sheet was later filed against petitioners. The prosecution said that the charge sheet was filed after several independent witnesses, who couldn’t be examined earlier, were questioned.
The bench, however, noted that the ‘independent witnesses’ were in fact the complainant’s parents.
It questioned why, given their easy availability, the investigating officer had not sought them sooner. The court further noted that the investigating authority had access to all of the information utilised in the later charge sheet at the time the initial charge sheet was filed, making the complete set of facts omnibus.
The court’s verdict came in response to a batch of writ petitions, and the proceedings against the petitioners were dismissed.
