The high court of Kolkata has taken over the mantle of sermonising the duties of a man towards his wife. From previous year pronouncement of Justice Katju of SC — “do what your wife tells you and never question her authority”, to another pronouncement this year by Justice Deepak Verma of SC that “Whenever a person is married, there is no question of independence”.
If the allegations against this cop are really true, then a sorry is not enough, and it is a fit case for criminal prosecution – under a relevant section of IPC. But the judges seem to be more concerned that a policeman was not aware of implications of complaint under IPC 498a!
TNN, Aug 4, 2010, 01.02am IST
KOLKATA: Dinesh Ray, a police constable posted at Cooch Behar, came all the way to Calcutta high court, praying for anticipatory bail. Ray feared arrest after his father-in-law lodged a complaint of wife torture under Section 498A of the IPC. The court asked Ray’s counsel to ensure that the constable apologises to his wife by next Tuesday, failing which the court would take action against the accused.
The alleged wife torture began a month after Dinesh married Tapashi of Jalpaiguri in December, 2009. It continued for months till Dinesh recently thrashed his wife so much that Tapashi had to be rushed to a nursing home. Her father Sunil Ray lodged a complaint with the Gokulvita police.
When Ray’s counsel Ranjana Talapatra moved the anticipatory bail, the division bench of Justice Ashim Kumar Banerjee and Justice Raghunath Ray held that it was shameful act on the part of the accused because he happens to be a police constable and is quite aware of the implication of the complaint under 498A. However, the bench did not turn down the bail application.