Man gets two-year jail term for harassing wife

  This case should be Appealed to High Court.

Sept 16, 2010

Anand Parmar and his parents had thrown Sohagini out of the house for giving birth to girl child and bringing less dowry

The metropolitan court convicted a man and four members of his family for abandoning his wife after she gave birth to a girl child. Metropolitan magistrate D S Trivedi on Monday awarded a two-year imprisonment and Rs 1,000 fine each to woman’s in-laws in the dowry harassment case.

Those convicted for harassing Sohagini Parmar were her husband Anand, father-in-law Natwar, mother-in-law Ela Parmar, brother-in-law Pratik Parmar and sister-in-law Riben Parmar — all residents of Saras Society in Ranip.

Sohagini, an MA LLB with a diploma in clinical psychology, used to reside at  Shyamal Bunglows in Chandkheda. She married Anand on April 20, 2003. Her father gave the couple jewellery and wedding gifts worth Rs 2 lakh. Little did they know that her marriage would run into trouble in just three months.

According to the complaint filed, the husband had an affair in college which he continued even after marriage. He would frequently bring his paramour home and act indecorously with her in front of Sohagini. He also demanded a Santro car as dowry as he was ‘English-educated’.

Anand, who used to work in Surat, came home only on weekends. He told Sohagini that he had married her due to societal pressure and that he never liked her. Her father-in-law and mother-in-law started inflicting physical and mental torture on her. She bore it all to save her marriage. However, problems worsened after she gave birth to a daughter in 2005. When she gave her in-laws the news of the child’s birth, they reprimanded her because they wanted her to produce a son.

Sohagini returned to her in-laws with her daughter but she was not permitted to enter the house. The in-laws threatened to kill her if she returned. A crestfallen Suhagini filed a complaint with the women’s police station on May 8, 2008.  And and his parents were arrested under IPC 498(a), 323, 506(2), 504 and 114 of the CrPC.