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MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) recently struck down a POCSO case registered against a 37-year-old man after it learnt that his estranged wife falsely registered a police complaint to malign him and to take vengeance by using their minor daughter.
The woman, a surgeon, alleged in her complaint that her husband molested their daughter during recess time at a family court in Bandra in 2018. At the time, the court was hearing a case on their matrimonial dispute. Considering the seriousness of the allegations, an inquiry was initiated and the court found that no such incident had occurred in their premises.
“It appears to us, that the wife with a view to wreak vengeance on the husband, with mala-fide intention filed the police complaint,” said the division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice Neela Gokhale. “In view thereof, a continuation of the said proceedings will be a sheer abuse of process of law and deserves to be quashed,” the court added and struck down the criminal proceedings against the 37-year-old Goregaon resident.
The Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) police registered an FIR against the man on June 13, 2018, under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 354 (outraging modesty of a woman) of Indian Penal Code and sections 8, 10 and 12 of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
The woman claimed that her ex-husband had inappropriately touched their minor daughter and she appealed to the family court that their daughter’s custody should be granted to her and the man should be barred from meeting the minor. The principal judge of the family court then investigated the allegations and found them unfounded. CCTV footage of the court premises made it clear that no such incident occurred in the complex. A marriage counsellor and a social worker were present when the Goregaon resident met his daughter at the court complex. The judges noted that at least two other persons were present there and they would have definitely prevented any such incident, as alleged by the woman. The court said, they would have at least reported the incident to the principal judge, had it happened.