Sunday, 9 November 2014

Man convicted under dowry law for non-consummation, insisting wife sleep with his friends

MUMBAI: Twenty years after a polio-stricken Solapur resident accused her husband of failing to consummate the marriage and insisting that she first sleep with his friends, the Bombay high court has ruled that he is guilty under the anti-dowry law for mental harassment.

Justice Sadhna Jadhav convicted Bhaskar Mane for committing the offence under section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which is usually applied in dowry harassment cases. But the judge accepted the plea by Mane's lawyer to treat his case with some leniency as over two decades have passed. The high court sentenced him to two months in jail, which he had already undergone in 1994 after his arrest.


"(The wife) deposed before the court in her substantive evidence that her husband had refused to consummate the marriage and was insisting upon her to have sexual relations with three other persons. The allegation itself would be mental harassment to the wife," said the judge. "(It) can be safely inferred that the accused has committed offence punishable under section 498."

Mane married Laxmibai in 1993, but lived with him only for a short time as they often quarrelled. A year later, she approached the local police and alleged that her husband was insisting that she sleep with three other men. When she refused, he allegedly made her drink some poisonous substance. She told the police that she was rescued by neighbours.

In 1994, a sessions court held Mane guilty under section 498A and sentenced him to three months in jail. He then challenged the verdict, which came up for hearing in the high court earlier this year. The HC said that the allegation against Mane comes under 498A, which talks about a husband or his relative subjecting the woman to cruelty.

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