Man, his brother acquitted in dowry harassment case

A Delhi court has acquitted a man and his brother in a dowry harassment case lodged by a woman, saying it seemed to be a "concocted and false" complaint filed due to a property dispute.
The court absolved the man, along with his brother, of the charges of torturing, wrongfully confining and threatening his wife to grab the property given to her by her father.
"The story as disclosed by the complainant on the face of it seems to be concocted and false and it appears to be a dispute over a 50-square yard plot in the complainant's name.
"There is nothing on record to prove that she was subjected to cruelty in lieu of demand for dowry," Metropolitan Magistrate Chetna Singh said.

According to the prosecution, a complaint was lodged by the woman and her father alleging that her husband used to beat her after consuming alcohol and was forcing her to give him documents of the property.
It said she left her husband's house and started living with her brother-in-law, adding that he too began beating and torturing her.

A complaint was lodged and the two men were arrested for the offences of cruelty, wrongful confinement, voluntarily causing hurt and threatening of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
She, however, resiled from her statement during cross examination and said the complaint was lodged by her father and she was not aware of it.

During the trial, the prosecution told the court that the woman was staying with her brother-in-law willingly and no allegations of her wrongful confinement were made by her to the police or at that time when the duo were arrested.
The accused had denied the allegations levelled against them and claimed they were falsely implicated.
The court said, "There is nothing on record to suggest that the woman was kept forcefully by the accused or that she was subjected to cruelty in connection with demand of dowry or that she was threatened by any of the accused persons.