Bengaluru: Karnataka High Court has quashed proceedings in a cruelty case against a Hosapete-based politician, who claimed to be the seventh husband of the complainant who allegedly married nine times.“On the assessment of the material, the allegations appear to be bald and omnibus, without the specific factual foundation necessary to sustain the prosecution,” Justice M Nagaprasanna noted in his order while allowing the petition filed by the politician.The petitioner had challenged the proceedings pending before a court at Udupi, following the complaint from his wife. According to him, the complainant has married nine times since 2004, when she was 16 years old, and on every occasion the modus operandi was the same: she would marry, fix up a fight, file cases and settle the disputes. He also placed documents to buttress his allegations against her.On the other hand, the Udupi-based woman argued that the marriage certificates produced to show that the petitioner was the seventh husband were all fake.According to her, she had married four times, after duly obtaining divorce, talaq or khula from all previous marriages. She said there was no overlap of marriages.She contended that there was material against the petitioner indulging in cruelty to demand dowry.Justice Nagaprasanna noted that criminal law could not be permitted to become a convenient instrument for the enforcement of private demands.“Equally, a person’s matrimonial history, however unusual it may appear, cannot by itself furnish a legal foundation for disbelieving an allegation of criminal wrongdoing,” the judge added.“If the allegations in the complaint and the material collected during investigation, even when taken at their face value, fail to disclose the commission of the offences alleged, compelling the petitioner to undergo the rigours of a criminal trial would serve no legitimate purpose. The filing of a chargesheet cannot breathe life into an accusation which, even upon acceptance at its face value, fails to disclose the essential ingredients of a criminal offence,” the judge said.
