‘Wife too sensitive, magnified trivial issues’, says HC, acquits NRI doctor in cruelty case

BENGALURU: Observing that the complainant-wife appears to be “too sensitive in magnifying several trivial aspects into big issues and the same ultimately resulted in the present case”, the Karnataka HC has acquitted her US-based doctor and his 77-year-old mother.
The wife had alleged that apart from her husband asking her to study more to secure a job in the US, her mother-in-law was insisting that she have a child, pestered her to eat more and pressured her to learn Tamil language, among other things. In September 2013, a magistrate court in Bengaluru had convicted the doctor and his mother under Section 498-A of IPC (cruelty) and under Sections 3 and 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act. While the son was sentenced to one-year simple imprisonment with Rs 1 lakh as fine, the mother was sentenced to six months with Rs 10,000 fine.
On December 1, 2016, the 51st city civil and sessions court affirmed the trial court’s judgement. Both verdicts were challenged before the HC through criminal revision petitions. Allowing the petitions filed by the doctor and his mother, Justice HB Prabhakara Sastry noted that trial court and the sessions court appear to have been carried away with “the self-serving testimony” of the complainant by ignoring the fact that the statements of complainant and prosecution witnesses were bald, vague and lacked details of alleged incidents.