Supreme Court: The Bench comprising of S.A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao, JJ. allowed a criminal petition filed against the judgment of Hyderabad High Court whereby appellants’ petition under Section 482 CrPC was dismissed.
Respondent 2-wife filed a complaint alleging harassment by her husband and his relatives including the appellants herein. The appellants were maternal uncles of the husband. Pursuant to the said complaint, an FIR was filed under Section 498-A IPC. The appellants filed the petition before the High Court for quashing the FIR. However, the High Court, vide the judgment impugned, dismissed the petition of the appellants. Aggrieved thus, the appellants filed the instant appeal.
The Supreme Court perused the charge sheet and found that the appellants were not the immediate family members of the husband. Except for the statement that they support the husband who was harassing the wife, nothing showed their involvement in the offence alleged. The Court referred to Kans Raj v. State of Punjab, (2000) 5 SCC 207 and Kailash Chandra Agarwal v. State of U.P., (2014) 16 SCC 551 and observed that the relatives of the husband should not be roped in on the basis of omnibus allegations unless specific instances of their involvement in the crime are made out. On the facts and circumstances of the present case, the Court held that not even a prima facie case was made out against the appellants. Resultantly, the appeal was allowed; the judgment impugned was set aside; and criminal proceedings qua the appellants, in the matter concerned, were quashed. [K. Subba Rao v. State of Telangana, 2018 SCC OnLine SC 1080, dated 21-08-2018]
