Khushi Gupta
Published on: June 7, 2022 at 19:54 IST
The Karnataka High Court recently pulled up the State police for its shoddy probe in a complaint filed by a wife accusing her husband of forcing her to have unnatural sex with him.
Single-judge Justice M Nagaprasanna was hearing a Plea filed by a woman seeking directions to the police authorities to conduct further probe in her complaint lodged in 2017 alleging that her husband forced her for unnatural sex and on her refusal tortured, harassed and even assaulted her physically.
The Complaint further stated that the husband took some obscene photos and videos of the complainant-wife which he later circulated to her father and some friends on social media platforms WhatsApp and Facebook.
However, the Bangalore City Police in its chargesheet filed in September 26, 2019 didn’t invoke either Section 377 (unnatural sex) of the Indian Penal Code or the relevant provisions of the Information and Technology (IT) Act, 2000.
Instead, the chargesheet only made out a case of Domestic Violence under Section 498A of the IPC. Justice Nagaprasanna said that this fact revealed how shoddy the probe had been.
The wife claimed that her husband would force her to have sexual relationships with other men or even for group sex.
The Court said that if the provisions of law, the complaint lodged by the victim and also her statements recorded by the police are read in tandem, it would prima facie make out a case under Section 377 of the IPC.
The Judge thus, ordered a further probe against the husband and filing of a supplementary chargesheet before the Trial Court within two months.
He also dismissed the Husband’s Petition seeking to quash the criminal proceedings against him.