A GUIDE TO SURVIVING IPC It's A very useful guide for all the Indo Pak Peoples for knowing there rights in IPC Or PPc

A GUIDE TO SURVIVING IPC 498A CHAPTER II Please understand this; 498A is a criminal case. This is very different from a civil case such as divorce. In a 498A case, though you are entitled to due process, your rights are tossed aside and you are presumed to be guilty until proven innocent. You will be treated on par with criminals. I am not joking about this. In reality, there doesn’t appear to be a set process the police follow when a 498A is filed. How the police treat you is dependent upon your social standing and the perception the police have of you. This is the unvarnished truth. In some cases, the police appear and summon people for counseling. If the counseling fails, the next round leads to arrest. There is absolutely no investigation done by the police to verify the accusations. In some cases, there is a lag between the counseling session and the arrest. In other cases, the arrest is made first. A young man was pulled out of a class and was arrested and held in remand for several weeks. What kind of a process was followed here? In the event that you are called in for counseling and are asked to return to the police station in a few days or weeks, you may want to file for anticipatory bail immediately. You can file for anticipatory bail after the FIR is filed, but before you are arrested. Once you are arrested, you are the mercy of the magistrate. If you get anticipatory bail, the game is over for the cops and the in laws. The next section describes the common scenario where the police approach you in the name of counseling, which is invariably a demand to settle the issue monetarily, failing which this leads to arrest when you are unable to obtain bail. Your First Meeting With The Police: In most cases, the police will arrive at your door in the early hours of the morning while all of you are half asleep, and will attempt to take you, and members of your family to the police station. Friday mornings or the day before public/court holidays are another favorite time the police choose to get you. They do this, as they can prevent you from being presented before a magistrate, depriving you of a chance to apply for bail on the same day. This will allow them to hold you in custody over the weekend and really tighten the screws. Be assured, the police have been bribed to their gills and this is the norm, rather than the exception. The police personnel who show up at the door will give you their word and tell you that they will lay down their life to protect you and that you must accompany them. Believe them at your peril. They will say they need to arrest you if you don’t accompany them. They will do what ever it takes to get you to the police station. Depending upon your social standing, the police may also resort to coercive tactics, which means you may very well be beaten up. Be calm when dealing with the police. Do not show any fear or confusion. They are the Indian Police and not the Gestapo or the KGB. They have no right to hurt you or assault you in anyway. You are protected by the constitution. At that time and place, this may sound unrealistic. Trust me, you are protected and the police know it. All the same, they will intimidate and threaten you. If they assault you, make sure that you record the proof of it on a cell phone camera, at the least. The police can be nailed for abusing their power. Do your best to maintain the upper hand. Don’t think in terms of human rights. They mean nothing. You need to think and speak in terms of Fundamental Rights. Your Fundamental Rights are guaranteed. It takes confidence, courage, and quick wittedness to confound the police. You can do it. The policemen who show up at your door will be underlings. Wait till you meet the Police Inspector (SHO). The main drama will take place in the Station House. I am checking up on the code of criminal procedures that need to be followed for cognizable offenses like 498A. I will post them when I have more information. Initially, the police will say that they want to take you in for counseling to the police station. If you get to the police station, you will possibly find your spouse and her relatives there. Invariably, the demands will be along the lines of reconciliation or they will ask you to pay up a sum of money to settle the issue. The police will attempt to mediate a settlement. If this fails, you will be taken into custody along with most or all the members of your family who have been accused. If all your efforts to stand off an arrest fail, then you will need to go to the police station. It may be in the city or in the districts. Regardless, the arrestee has rights that the police must respect. The Supreme Court has issued a set of directives (Shri Dilip K. Basu Etc.Ashok K. Johari Vs. State Of West Bengal & Ors Date Of Judgment: 01/08/1997) that need to be Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 1/9 11/9/07 followed and obeyed by the arresting officer, failing which the arresting officer can be held accountable through departmental action and contempt of court. Preparing For Arrest Or Detention: • Take some snacks and water with you. • Take your cell phone and its charger. Make sure you have the number of your lawyer stored. If it is a prepaid phone, ensure that it is charged to the max extent. Pay off the cops to do these minor things. • Mosquito repellent. The police station will be infested with them ☺. • Keep some cash with you, but don’t take any valuables like jewellery. Don’t have anything flashy on you. • If any member of your family is on medication, ensure that you take these along. • Pack a set of clothes handy to be delivered fast if needed. Pack for 5 days if approached on a Friday. • Take a book. The Bhagavad-Gita, Bible or the Koran, or anything else of interest to keep you engaged. You will grow close to your god in these trying times. • Take a notepad and pen to list your feelings with timelines. It will come in useful if you need to recollect the facts in a courtroom or several years down the line when you get to nail her under Section 182 of IPC. • Inform a trusted friend. • Get the name of the police inspector and his contact info such as cell, phone # in the station. • Get the police station address and phone numbers that you are being taken to. It is your right to know. • Get the names of the SP, ASP and any other superior officer and their contact info. • Try to get a copy of the FIR. You have the right to know what you are being charged with. • Keep a copy of this document with you. It will be a useful reference, especially with regard to your rights. It is in your interest to ensure that you do not accompany the police to the station, at least, not without being escorted by your lawyer. Dealing With The Shock: The first thing you need to deal with is the shock you will experience when the police show up at your door. Sheer terror and disbelief is what you will feel. This is accompanied by a sense of betrayal. The woman, with whom you’ve shared your most intimate moments, the mother of your children (if kids are involved), has filed false criminal charges against you and members of your family. The shock is followed by panic and a sense of helplessness. You will feel rage when your parents/siblings are arrested. There will be a scramble to call relations and friends and find a lawyer to arrange for bail. There will be an absolute sense of bewilderment. There may also be temptation to run out of the back door. That’s fine. Hold on. Don’t give in to panic. Think. When the police arrive at your doorstep, there will be a tendency to look to them for help, information or reassurance. Don’t look to the police for this. They are not there to comfort or reassure you. Try to remain calm. Delay. Sit in the potty to compose yourself. Call your neighbors as witnesses. Don’t worry about your prestige; you will gain greater respect if you are able to avoid getting caught up in this extortion racket. There has been an instance when the neighbors convinced the police leave without an arrest. Video record the situation to the extent possible. Use a cell phone or a digital camera. Try to record as much as the conversation with the police as possible. Keep your wits about you. Be fearless. Stick to your ground and resist accompanying the police to the station on a Friday. Use the judgments of the Supreme Court. Do your best to ensure that you go to the station on a Monday and accompanied by your lawyers. Do not go there alone. Try to fight on your turf, which is your home and neighborhood. Don’t surrender this advantage easily. How they deal with you will depend upon your social and economic status. Procedures and policies get thrown to the wind in the frenzy to get you to the station. If their intimidation gets out of hand, gently tell them that you are a citizen and that you have rights and any excesses on their side will be reported to the Home Secretary of the state or the DGP. The Home Secretary is an IAS officer and their ultimate boss, above the DGP. Once they understand that you will stand and fight, they may treat you with respect and with a little luck, you may avoid arrest. If for any reason, you are unable to dissuade the police from forcing you to accompany them, then accompany them with the copies of the Supreme Court judgments. You may be able to nail them on charges of contempt of court later. Tell them that it is no idle threat. The police are under intense pressure to get you and as many members of your family to the station as they can get their hands on. They’ve been paid to do so and there is Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 2/9 11/9/07 more money to be made from arresting all of you. Try your best to keep members of your family out of it. They will use your family as a pawn in this game. Do your best to protect the women and children. They have arrested over 300 children in 498A cases. Breast-feeding mothers, children, grandparents have been arrested. The statistics from the Home Ministry speak for themselves. If are you compelled to accompany them, do so, but, first, activate plan B. Get your lawyer to prepare to file a bail applications in the lower courts and the High Courts. The FIR: In most cases, the FIRs are shoddy pieces of after thought or well-crafted documents that can never withstand an impartial and thorough scrutiny. They are crafted by either a lawyer or by the police. Here is what the Allahabad HC (Allahabad HC, Writ Petition MB 528 of 2005, 10/01/2006) had to say: “At the very outset, it may be observed that the eleven long pages First Information Report which had resulted in launch of criminal proceedings against the petitioners is so well-worded and neatly woven that it does not leave any room for doubt that it is a well-deliberated draft by a legal expert.” Jurisdiction: On some cases, the complainant alleges that the harassment took place in on place and files the complaint in another district/city or state. They get away with this, as there is no enforcement of penalties for perjury, nor is there sufficient oversight. I was also led to believe that a woman could file a case in any part of India against you. If she does that, the harassment factor goes up by 10 times. Imagine running around the courts and police stations in an unfamiliar place. Imagine the intimidation you can be subjected to if you need to fight on a turf of her choosing. Think about the expenses involved in travel and lodging and having to lug your lawyers around with you. Fortunately, if this happens, this becomes the grounds for a quash petition. Please read the document on “Understanding Issues Of Jurisdiction”. There is a judgment by the Supreme Court (CASE NO: Appeal (crl.) 904 of 2004. Y. Abraham Ajith & Ors vs Inspector of Police, Chennai & Anr. 17/08/2004), which may help in your situation as it deals with issues of jurisdiction. Here is a link (http://tinyurl.com/yo2bh7) to the judgment and a bail order explaining this. Please read the contents of this link http://tinyurl.com/2mbsxz to clearly understand issues of jurisdiction. And yes, a woman can file a complaint anywhere, but the case needs to be transferred and tried in the jurisdiction of the court where the alleged offence took place. Finally, read this judgment from the Allhabad/Lucknw High Court to understand how it all ties together (http://tinyurl.com/2obp74). The Police Station: Let me give you an idea of what you are walking into. The conditions vary, as there is no uniformity or a set standard. The Indian Police force was structured to enforce the will of the white sahibs on the natives. The only change, the police force has undergone in these years of independence, is in the color of the sahibs. The white ones are long gone; the brown ones have taken over. The Police Station will be an intimidating place and walking into it will be a humiliating experience. It was designed to humiliate you. It may be dimly lit, dirty, with riff raff floating in and out and staring at you. You will see a dark room whose door is made of steel bars. Yes! That may very well be your abode for the weekend. You and the members of your family will be seated on an old bench or made to stand if it gets too crowded. You will be made to wait for hours. Lechers will stare at your sister and the younger women of your family. As men, we are biologically and culturally built, to be the providers and protectors of our families. This will be one of the most difficult aspects of this situation to bear. Bear it in silence. Don’t lose your temper and don’t do anything to jeopardize your situation by shooting your mouth off. Think as calmly as possible. Your day will come. The Police know that all of you are accused in a 498A case. They make an average of Rs.10,000 for each 498A case, and that is a very low estimate. They will also get a cut if their mediation leads to a settlement. In the station, do not expect any kind of a courtesy from the police. No one will listen to you. Your lawyer, if you have one with you, may or may not be effective. You can forget about bathroom facilities. The women will be the hardest hit. You may be fed some food from the roadside food stall. I just hope that you won’t end up feeling sick from eating it. Expect to spend around 8 hrs in the station. Rely on the snacks and water you have, or have more delivered through a friend. Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 3/9 11/9/07 The Police Constables: The constables will be your first point of contact with the police. They are ill treated, uneducated people who will behave in a manner that suits your social status. They work in inhumane conditions and have no idea about the finer points of living in a civilized society. Some of them will be genuinely nice to you. You need to respect their uniform and be polite to them, but you may need to educate them about your rights, as they would have no clue. In most cases, the constables are just looking to make a fast buck. Don’t waste your money on them if they demand bribes from you. They have absolutely no power to do anything for you, except to try to fleece you. The Police Inspector: After making you wait for a sufficient amount of time to show his importance, his Highness, the Inspector of Police will condescend to talk to you. He is the investigating officer and the person with the most power to settle your case. He will be your primary adversary. He is the intimidator, the goon and the bounty hunter rolled into one. He will be rude and uncouth. If you have connections you may want to get connected and try to get some pressure applied on him. He may ask you a few questions. Actually, these won’t be questions, but more along the lines of asking you to own up to taking dowry. If the Inspector perceives that you are easy pickings, he will try to arrest you after performing a semblance of counseling. Try to appear tough. Put on an act. Show him the SC judgments and assert your rights. While this is going, your lawyer should be making every attempt to get all of you out on bail. You can get anticipatory bail until you are arrested. There will be some attempts made at “counseling”. There is a chance that all of you may end up being let go at this point since ‘counseling’ has been done. Consider this to be round one. Round two will definitely lead to arrest. Even at this stage, you may be able to apply for anticipatory bail. Check with your lawyer and do your best to get it. Again, do your best to get your parents out. This is your fight. Try your best to protect your family. If you fail at any stage or keep facing set backs, do not give into despondency or indulge in self-recrimination. Focus on the task at hand. All this will play out and eventually things will be back on an even keel. Just keep your spirits up and shake off any despondency due to setbacks. The police will play many tricks on you. One favorite, is the good cop, bad cop routine. Here is a comment from a visitor to my blog: “What makes you think the cops in Chennai are different from their counterparts elsewhere? The more innocent you are, the more bribe you will have to pay. If you are from a respectable family and earning well, then it’s a goldmine for them. The first thing they want to verify is your social status. This gives them a good idea of how much they can swindle from you. They have rather sophisticated ways of swindling. They play the good cop/bad cop drama quite well. They will make sure you make several rounds the police station in the name of inquiry/counseling…etc and tacitly ask you to pay them something during every visit. Did you know in most cases the cops demand around Rs. 5000 to register a false dowry complaint case? The cops are well aware that the case is false and they see a great opportunity to fleece both sides for money. In most cases it is the husband’s side that has to shell out huge sums of money.” The more the harassment the Inspector subjects you to, the better the chances are that if you complain against him, he will be nailed. The Road To Arrest And Remand: In the event of an arrest, the chances are that you’ve been picked up on a Friday and since you’ve been made to wait all day, it will almost be evening and the courts will be closing so you won’t have time to apply for bail. You and the men of your family will be held over the weekend, but the women of your family may be allowed to leave. If you try to reason with the police, they will brush you aside and threaten to subject you to third degree treatment. The Inspector will do is his best not to arrest all of you. Here is the reason why. If he arrests all of you, then there won’t be any one to negotiate a settlement with. He needs one of you outside. Try not to be intimidated. He is a law enforcement officer. Not a goon. Remind him of it. Be firm. You may be quaking inside, but try not to show it. All of you will feel exposed and helpless and to a certain extent, you will feel violated. This is normal. You are in the hands of the Indian Criminal Justice System, which was designed by the ‘Firangis’ to intimidate the coolies. Don’t dwell on the moment and instead look into the future when you will be free. It may be the same day or in a few weeks. But free, you will be. Stay STRONG!! Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 4/9 11/9/07 I also suggest that you DON’T bribe the police to settle the case. Approximately 58,000 498A cases filed each year. More than a lakh of people get arrested. This scene is being played out across the country. So act differently. Surprise them. If the police want to hold you, let them. It is a jail not a concentration camp. Make all kinds of demands. Throw the law book at them. You may feel rage but never resort to foul language or give in to your anger. Be non– cooperative in a non-confrontational manner and by asserting your rights. Try to be calm and friendly and earn their respect with your behavior. Alleviate the stress by joking with your parents and siblings. Try to stay in command of the situation. Above all, remember that you have rights. And heck, this is just a police station and you can confound the police with your arguments. The police may make a halfhearted attempt to investigate, if that. They are just trying to make a fast buck. So play on their greed, but don’t give them anything. Keep your cool. Be polite and arrange to have a lawyer with you ASAP! You have the right to remain silent. Exercise this right. Be stubborn. Don’t admit to anything if you are being intimidated. SMILE! Exchange pleasantries and keep your mouth shut. Do what ever it takes to hold firm. This is the time when the first demands for cash will be put forward. It will be substantial depending upon the assets you have. I expect that it will be twice what you can afford. The police will attempt to “settle” the case right there in the police station. The police will bargain and attempt to mediate. Be assured, the police will get a cut. Just don’t give in. Don’t admit to anything. You have the right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination. The less you say the better. Whether you are guilty or not is for the trial court to decide. Expect the police to subject you and your family to severe intimidation. All of you may be subjected to verbal abuse and threats of physical injury. There have been cases of people, women too, being strip-searched. My sister was threatened with being charged with all sorts of crimes, unless she revealed my whereabouts. She stood firm and bore the brunt of the harassment for me. Expect your mother and sister(s) to be addressed as sluts and whores. Bear it with patience. Do not lose your temper. Your day will come. The police will subject you to this pattern of threats and intimidation to terrorize you into submission. This is a racket where the police, the spouse, the in laws, and the lawyers get a cut. The other side will spend money and they are expecting to recoup their investment from you. In most cases it’s the police who hire themselves out to do the intimidation and mediation and they will be harsh in their dealings. The system is designed to break your will and terrify you and your family into submission. You are promised that if you cough up the cash, they will let your family go and the case will be withdrawn. It will then follow up with the threat that if you do not agree to these terms and the case ends up in the courts, your family will need to trudge to the court for years to come. Threats will be made about jail time if the conviction takes place. IPC498A is non-compoundable. That means it cannot be withdrawn except in the High Court of the state of Andhra Pradesh. The courts allow the withdrawal of a 498A case with a noble outlook, but their leniency is leading to the propagation of this extortion racket. Here is an explanation by Justice Shiv Narain Dhingra of the Delhi HC (Rajinder Kumar Sharma and Another v State and Another CASE NO: Crl.M.C. 1216-17 of 2006): “The Courts have been allowing quashing of proceedings under Section 498A /406 Indian Penal Code, 1860 because in such cases the FIRs are result of matrimonial discord and more often the effort of the Court is that either the parties should settle for a compromise for living together or they should part their company peacefully, so that, there is peace and amity in the society. In cases resulting from matrimonial discord, the Court is not dealing with criminal but dealing with broken marriages and broken homes where resort is more often made to Sections 498A/406 Indian Penal Code, 1860 to teach lessons to the family of husband or to take revenge“ Bail And Deception: If you haven’t gotten bail and are arrested, the cops will play all sorts of tricks to keep you locked up. There is a chance that all of you may be remanded if produced in the court. This is a part I am not clear about No definitive procedures anywhere. They can legally hold you in jail for 60+ days without trial. But they won’t do so. They need to justify why they are depriving a citizen of their right to freedom. But expect to be held for a period of more than two weeks at the least. People have been held for longer periods. To know the whereabouts of the person arrested, you can file an RTI. They police are required to give an answer within 48 hours. The basics of filing an RTI are given here, along with some templates (http://tinyurl.com/32pa5p). Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 5/9 11/9/07 You will be given excuses and told that they will hold you and/or members of your family for 24 hours and then yet another 24 hours and then another 24 hours and the next thing you know, they will be transferred to a jail. A jail is different from the lock up in the police station. Once in the jail, the cell phone will be taken away. Communications will be cut. Before you know it a week passes. And it will be the start of the weekend. There is nothing more you can do except wait for Monday. A lot of bribing goes on in the background to prevent you from getting out on bail. This is because, being incarcerated is a horrible experience and the longer a person is held, the more the pressure to pay up and get them out. Legally, the police can hold a person in jail for 60 days, but they still need to justify it. I believe that a good criminal lawyer knows the tricks of this trade and will be the most helpful in securing bail. Once you are taken to a jail, you will be hitting a brick wall. The courts are the only place you can go to get bail and get out. It is almost guaranteed that you will be taken into custody on a day before a court holiday. It will be an agonizing experience as for the first time; you will realize what you have gotten yourself into. There is nothing anyone can do. If you are in jail, your family will bear the brunt of it. If you are outside and your family is inside, both of you will bear the brunt of this. This is a horrifying experience and rage will take over. There are many who are going through this as you read this document. Stay calm. Your day will come. In the meantime, THINK! Here are some tricks that are being played: • I’ve heard that in some cases the public prosecutors (PP) are hand in glove with the police. The way the system works is you and/or members of your family are held in a jail. The PP won’t show up for the bail petition hearing or he will oppose it. The next thing he will do is he will have the date of hearing postponed as far into the future as possible. During this time, all of you will be in a state of panic. So the police will come out with a formula. It will involve money. Miraculously, the PP will no longer be an obstacle. Be prepared for this. • There is another trick that is being played. The husband, conventionally referred to as A1, is arrested and some magistrates do not grant bail unless the parents and the accused siblings surrender. • I have heard that some magistrates defer orders till the next day and then deny bail at the end of the next day. Before you know it, a week goes by. Watch out for this. I do not know of any remedies except to file in the High Court once the bail petition is dismissed. But that is a battle for your lawyer to fight and this is what plan B entails. Bail from the High Court may take 10 days. I hope your lawyer is executing plan B and filing away bail applications in all the courts. The procedures differ by state. The Process Of Remand And Life In Remand: A quick digression to describe the process of remand and life in remand. Once you are arrested, the police may produce you before a magistrate, or send you to the district/city jail. I haven’t been able to establish a clear procedure. If they produce you before a magistrate, he will be sitting inside a huge hall on an elevated platform. On both his sides, on the ground level will be a steno and the bench clerk. The steno records the proceedings and the bench clerk is the guy who will schedule appearances before the magistrate. You will need to wait outside the court till your case is called. It may take all day. A bailiff will announce the name of your lawyer and your name at the door of the courthouse in a loud voice. The bailiff will be the guy who will be in white with a red sash. There is a break in the court proceedings every 45mins and these proceedings will go on all day. If your lawyer bribes the bench clerk, your case may come up for hearing faster. Once you appear before the magistrate he may or may not look at you. He has the power to grant or refuse bail, as this is a non-bailable offence. If he decides to grant you bail, you may complete the formalities and get on with your life. Don’t forget to thank your gods. In the event he decides to remand you, he will make an entry in the appropriate diary and the court constable will take you into custody and escort you out. No one will be handcuffed or chained. The Supreme Court is very clear about this and by now you should know which judgment I am referring to. The court constable will process you by making notes of the birthmarks on your body and enter a description of you in his register. He will be rude and he will offer you unsolicited advice and jibes. When I mean you, I mean any and all members of your family who were unfortunately remanded. There are two kinds of remands judicial and police. You will be remanded to judicial custody and this means you will be taken to a district or city jail. The difference between jailed and remanded is that Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 6/9 11/9/07 people are jailed after they have been found guilty. This automatically implies that you are innocent. Don’t feel humiliated or dejected. There is nothing to be ashamed off. You are just being put through the process of the Indian criminal justice system. It is a process and needs to run its course. It will run its course. The men and the women will be separated and taken to different jails. Once you reach the jail in a police van or jeep, you will be meeting the jailor, his staff and the judicial warden. They will take away all your belongings, including medicines, Mangalsutra and cell phones for safekeeping. They will account for everything that they have taken from you. You will be given a plate, a mug, a mat and a thin sheet. You will be assigned an Identification number. You will be taken to large halls where 20 or so inmates will be held. These halls will have bars and no windows. Life will be difficult for those of you who have to endure this in the winter or summer. Among the inmates will be people charged with all sorts of crimes. In the women’s wing, most of the inmates will be charged with 498A, bigamy and prostitution. Life in remand will be regimented and there will be a routine that is followed. Tea will be given early in the morning. Lunch will be served late in the morning and dinner in the early evening. You will form a Q and stand in line with the rest to get your meals. Depending upon the region, meals consist of rice OR roti, not both, dal, a vegetarian dish and a glass of buttermilk. You will be served non-vegetarian meals on Sundays. Lactating and pregnant women will be given bread in the mornings. After dinner, all of you will be herded into these large halls and locked up. Initially, you may not be able to eat much, if at all, but you will get used to the routine. The bathrooms will have no latches and there will be no running water. You will need to carry water to the bathrooms. You will be assigned specific duties. A doctor visits you every day in the morning to ensure that you are doing well. In the event of any serious illness, the jail staff will immediately shift the sick person to a local hospital and guard will be assigned to watch you in the hospital. Otherwise, you will be sitting around all day doing nothing. My advice to you is to treat this as a forced vacation. Your experiences in remand may differ as it depends upon the decency of your warden. You will be allowed to meet with visitors at set times. The jailor has set visiting hours and the warden will make flying visits to inspect and check. The doctor will visit everyday and I have heard that proselytizing groups also visit on occasion to spread the word of Christ. At set hours of the day, the jail staff will announce the names of people who have been granted bail. Generally, it is in the late morning and in the evening around 5pm. While in remand, your routine will come down to waiting to see if you were granted bail or not. Your life will turn into a long wait with anticipation, followed by a feeling of being let down. The cycle repeats itself until the day your name is announced and you are told that you would be released. Once you are granted bail and are set to be released, you will be checked by a doctor to ensure that you are doing fine. Your belongings will be accounted for and given back to you. The warden and the judicial warden will inform you of the terms of your bail and repeatedly warn you about being on time for court appearances. Failing to appear for a court hearing, even being late, can result in you landing in this jail again. They will also inform you about the conditions of your bail if there are any. You will be released into the custody of your lawyer and the ride home will be an exhilarating experience. While in remand/custody/district jail, take each day at a time. Treat it like a forced vacation. Get into a routine. Befriend the people around. Stay cheerful. Have prayer meetings in the evenings. Generate good will as it pays dividends. Be polite and don’t let anyone see your anguish. Remember this, you are in the custody of the Indian state. Should anything happen to you, heads will roll. Make sure that someone or the other stops by, to keep your morale up. Try to read books. Note down your feelings in a time line. The food will be okay and your routine will be regimented. It will be a harrowing experience. You will be under intense pressure to give in and may want to pay up. It’s all right. Just hang on to yourself and this will pass. Once you get out, you will feel stronger and more determined to fight this case. This experience will rekindle the fire in you to fight back A word of caution. Like most things in life, your experience will differ and your experience may be a lot worse. Judicial remand and police remand are two different things. Police remand is a completely different ball game. I will provide more information in time. Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 7/9 11/9/07 The Trial Court: Once you get home after this horrendous experience, more attempts will be made to ensure a settlement. When this doesn’t work, the police officer will file a charge sheet and the matter then ends up in a court. Things will move very slowly, if at all. It may be two years before your case comes up for examination in a trial court. After that you may need to run around the courts for a while. The important thing to note is that the police will be out of the picture and can no longer harass you. You can forget about a conviction and even if the lower court convicts you, you have the appeals process and you may be able to continue appealing all the way to the Supreme Court. Coping With Your Emotions: Through this whole process, be prepared for a roller coaster ride of emotions of hope and despair. You need to handle the situation calmly and patiently. Think of the victims of the concentration camps. What ever it takes, just hang on. Stay strong. Do not despair. While in remand, the state is responsible for your safety and well being. The pressure on you to give up will be intense and your ability to think will diminish considerably. This is the intended effect of the whole process. Relax. Start thinking. Ask questions. Get details. Keep notes. Stay sharp. Focus. Here is the reality. You were all easy targets. The police didn’t need to do a lot. All they needed was an address to swing by and pick up people who had no warning about what was going to hit them. The police have been feasting on the rich pickings that are victims of a 498A. The police didn’t need to expend any energy to capture some moms, grandmas, aunts, dads, brothers, sisters, uncles or children, in the quiet of their home, oblivious to the ordeal that awaits them. They have done their worst to you and you’ve survived. I am sure that you never believed that you or your family would see the inside of a jail. Well, thanks to the 498A Wife, it’s happened. One of the most difficult things you will ever do, will be getting a grip over yourself and making sense of what had happened. Don’t try to make sense of what had happened. This is a vendetta and the failure of the state to legislate effective laws and nothing more. As soon as you are out on bail, get back to work, don’t dwell on this traumatic experience and try to pull your family together. Make sure that each and every member of your family gets busy and does something to occupy themselves. Be cheerful about what you underwent. Don’t let her think that she has you beaten. Take care of your parents and put on an appearance of being strong and unflappable to them. A period of unease and a sense of being violated will ensue for months. Be strong, slowly but surely, this feeling will dissipate and life will be as normal as it can be and you will learn to live with a criminal case hanging over your head. As time goes by, you will get stronger, the worst is over. In reality, post arrest, you will feel like you’ve been reduced to nothing, that your life has no significance and that you have achieved nothing. Your confidence and self-esteem take a huge hit and there will be an urge to curl up in a corner. Don’t give into this. The intended effect is to bring you to your knees, wear you out and get your money. Rise UP above all this. Pull yourself together and fight back. If you see them, SMILE! Don’t give them the joy of seeing you suffer or getting a reaction out of you. Don’t ever lose your temper and never let them see your tears. You are not the first person to face a 498A, though I do hope that you will be the last. A huge benefit of getting implicated in a false 498A and seeing the inside of a prison, is the change in your mental psyche. For some people, seeing the inside of a prison will be a humiliating experience which they would rather not talk about and the experience will leave scars forever. For many others, if you don’t succumb to the pressure and put up a fight, this experience will boost your mental the strength. They have done the worst they can. What else can they do? The courts will require evidence beyond reasonable doubt for conviction. There are so many false 498A cases being filed across the country, that even the real perpetrators of the crime of dowry harassment won’t get convicted. The process just takes way too long. If the lower court does convict you, you can always appeal at the next level and continue to live your life. I agree that it is a hassle. But then, we all pay for our mistakes and bringing a 498A wife into the house is such a mistake. This was an act of fate and you have to live with it. I’ve come to believe that life is about how you answer the questions it asks you. You’ll do better if you start considering your 498A case to be one such question that life threw at you. What is the best thing you can do to deal with the situation you in? Forgive. Forgive your wife, but don’t forget what she put you through. Channel your anger into a cause or your profession and let it drive you till it dissipates. Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 8/9 11/9/07 Your time will come. Till then prepare the groundwork for retaliation and do the things you love to do. The judges and the courts know that the law is being abused. In time, the tide will turn in the favor of those who have been falsely implicated in this extortion racket. The Effects On Your Professional Life: I’ve always been an achiever. I work hard and put my heart and soul into achieving whatever interests me. My primary motivation has always been the satisfaction one gets upon accomplishment of a goal. Failure is not an option. Professionally, I’ve always been considered an asset wherever I’ve been. Here is an example of the kind of letters of appreciation that I got, consistently. This was from the manager of the infrastructure team that supported the project I was working on. Here is what he had to say to my manager: “I just wanted to let you know, XXXX has down a great job with this project. He has been very professional and shown an above and beyond dedication.” Here is another one from another manager: “Thank you, XXXX! I just want you to know that you have really stood out! You have taken ownership and have seen it through. You have taken a lot of stress off of me! The vendor has commented on this as well.” This was prior to the filing of the 498A. Post 498A things changed a bit. Here is an email from my last manager: “What I'm seeing today looks like you are just coming by to give me the latest excuse as to why you are taking too long. Just fix it, get it done and move on. You need to find a way to get things done in a reasonable amount of time. We need to be able to count on you to contribute and do your part.” In my defense, I found it painful to work for this guy as he could de-motivate anybody. I have the ability to turn a situation like this around. Except, this time, I couldn’t. Something in me just gave out and I ended up resigning. I would rather resign than be considered a liability. It is insulting and demeaning to have someone say such things about you professionally. But this is the reality that many men who get entangled in this mess, will experience. How does one cope with this situation? Hang on; take a break or try to do work that does not tax you. Know what has happened to you and don’t let your self-esteem be affected negatively. This phase will pass. Be patient. Read on to understand what you can do fight back against this injustice. Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 9/9 11/9/07 A GUIDE TO SURVIVING IPC 498A CHAPTER III The Turn Around: Society at large considers the jailing of a family under false charges to be a low blow. The sympathy factor will now shift in your favor. Initially, you will be urged, cajoled and threatened to accede to their demands. The police will advice you to settle and will attempt to mediate. There may be other intermediaries as well. Under no circumstances should you concede. They are turning up the heat for a reason and the reason is your money. They will hound you to get it. It is an ordeal and it may last a few hours to a few months. Just hang on. Like I said, they will do all they can to break your will, and this is for a reason. Here is why. The beauty of a 498A lies in the fact that the police and the other party have a narrow window to get you to cough up the cash. And this window of time will last until you are out on bail and the case moves into the courts. There will be intense pressure to settle the case prior to this juncture. Withstand it. If you hold on now, then you will get the biggest prize for undergoing all this. You are now eligible for divorce on the grounds of cruelty. The Delhi High Court (FAO 67/2000 Smt. Pinki Jain Vs. Sh. Sanjay Jain DATE OF ORDER: 31-01-2005) has recognized that filing a false 498A is an act of cruelty. Ditching the 498A Wife has just gotten easier for you. There are other advantages. These are: • The police will lose interest in your case. The other side will have to keep bribing them to keep them moving and they will eventually run out of the cash. These police are lazy and will only go a certain extent before they give up. The police will also run at the first sign of trouble. • The other side will come to their senses. They will realize that the plan has backfired and they have a 498A daughter on their hands. No one will come forward to marry her again. • The other side will realize that if you engage a smart lawyer, he can make them run around the courts for a while. They will feel the pressure to settle. There have been spates of judgments from the Delhi High Court that have dismissed such 498A cases. Once you get out, you are through. There is a chance that you may get conditional bail. Be patient. The conditions can be relaxed in time. From here on, it’s your lawyers’ job to guide you. Hope you get a good one. Don’t feel disheartened. A 498A can be beaten with patience and planning. In most cases the charges filed will be blatant lies. Lies don’t stand up to hard scrutiny. You will prevail and I know many guys who have beaten these 498A Wives back, having them beg for a compromise within a year of filing the 498A. When Do People Give in? : IPC 498A is an extortion racket. It’s called an extortion racket because the official machinery is used to extort money from you by exploiting your weaknesses. The weakest links are the parents and young siblings. The age group of men facing a 498A will range from 25 to 35 on the average. This means that parents, whose ages range from 45 to 70+, are the ones who are affected the most. These are retirees. If they need to travel for court appearances frequently, it imposes a considerable amount of strain on them. Not to mention the stress caused by getting entangled in a criminal case. Parents literally age in a span of a few years. The cases don’t move as the courts are clogged and there is the social stigma of being caught up in a criminal case. Some parents may never be acquitted in what is left of their lifetime. A 498A sometimes breaks the bonds between siblings, especially the ones who are married as they are threatened with being implicated unless they stay out. Siblings are forced to stay out just to avoid the hassle. Another weak link are young unmarried siblings, especially girls. Since cases take many years to resolve, the lives of these young girls are put on hold. No one wants to enter into a match with a girl facing a criminal case that can go on for years. It gets worse for married siblings and their spouses as they find themselves entangled in this mess. Their kids are impacted too as they have to undergo the trauma of watching their parents getting arrested. They need to deal with the daily grind of life as well as a criminal case. Some families are lucky in the sense that they have other daughters in law who support them in this ordeal. Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 1/10 11/9/07 Another factor is the muscle that political heavy weights from the other side can bring into the case. Redress under normal circumstances is difficult. It becomes impossible in these conditions. This is when people give in and pay up. It is just not worth continuing to fight. My intention here is not to judge the people who give in or paint them in a negative light. The intent is to highlight what the state is inflicting on its citizens, especially the generation of our parents who had sacrificed so much, to get us to where we are. If our country is booming today, it is on account of the sacrifices made by the generation of our parents, who piled us on to a Chetak scooters and took us to movies and parks, and gave us their best, in what they could afford. They dropped us in the early hours of the morning at coaching institutes for admission tests. It is this generation who ran around banks and mortgaged their savings and ended up in debt to up to their necks to send us abroad or pay donations to get us into professional colleges. Can any one of you forget their joy when you got your visa or how they hid their disappointment and consoled you when you didn’t? The plight of our parents, caught up in this extortion racket, exposes the moral bankruptcy of the political class beholden to a small coterie for whatever purpose that this coterie serves. Could they be playing to the “naari” vote bank? Fighting Back: Once out on bail, you will be dealing with the judiciary. The police won’t get near you, unless you let them. In some cases, I’ve heard of police harassment continuing, but that is akin to a dog barking. Ignore and focus on the task at hand. This is when the real battle starts. Think carefully on how you will defend yourself by fighting back. A lot depends upon the way you fight back. 498A is promoted as a law that shields women from the violence of men. In reality, 498A is a poorly drafted and implemented law. Women’s groups prevent any kind of a civilized, factual debate from taking place as well as oppose any mention of amendments. If a man tries to fight a 498A, he has lost the fight before he starts, as the battle is framed as a man vs. woman fight. The best way to fight back is by taking a tactic from the Mahabharata and applying it here. Bhishma was decimating the Pandava army. The only way to eliminate him was by placing Shikhandin in the front and letting Arjuna wield the bow. The groups that oppose amendments to 498A are neither as noble as Bhishma nor are they are as powerful. They have gotten this far only due to the fact they are well organized, can mobilize large numbers at short notice, have the MPs cowed down, and are yet to face any organized opposition from ordinary women who have been tending to their families and their responsibilities, while these groups have hijacked a noble cause in their name. Your family collectively needs to play the role of Arjuna and the women of your family need to play Shikandhin. Rope in your grandma, mom, sister, niece’s aunts and above all, your sisters-in-law into this fight. The establishment will not touch them or be able to retaliate against them. You can do a lot from your home by using the Internet and by shooting letters of protest to the responsible ministries highlighting the indignities heaped upon you. I do advise you to be concise and factual in all your dealings with the govt if you want to be taken seriously. Watch the language. Make it as decent and unemotional as possible. Get your complaints proof read for errors of any kind. Here are some other things you may want to do: • Keep a copy of past judgments relevant to your case. You may just be able to escape by using them. There are tons of judgments at this site (http://ipc498a.wordpress.com/). Choose the ones applicable to your case. • Apply for dispensation from personal appearance for the immediate family in the court. You may get it. The code of Criminal Procedure 1973 allows it. Section 115 says: 115. Power to dispense with personal attendance: The Magistrate may, if he sees sufficient cause, dispense with the personal attendance of any person called upon to show cause why he should not be ordered to execute a bond for keeping the peace or for good behavior and may permit him to appear by a pleader. • Split the case from that of your family. If they are out, the opposition is no longer capable of pressing your hot buttons. You can do this by filing a Quash petition just for the members of your family. You stay out of it Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 2/10 11/9/07 and let your case go on. I repeat, make sure that you are not a party to the quash petition. The acquitted members of your family may be able to pursue section 182 against their false accusers. • Get the women in your family to file complaints with the National Commission for Women. Here is the link (http://ncw.nic.in/ncwcomplaint1/home.asp). If the link is inactive, mail them a letter (http://ncw.nic.in/contact.htm), CC the Home Ministry (http://mha.gov.in/) and drop a note to the PMO (http://pmindia.gov.in/write.htm). File your complaint with the PMO under the category of grievances and women’s issues. You can also email the National Criminal Justice System Policy Drafting Committee about your 498A experience: 1. (http://mha.gov.in/ncjsp.htm) 2. (cjspdc@yahoo.co.in ) Please ensure that you submit the complaint on behalf of the women in your family who were victims of 498A. Address the letters to the heads or Chief Secretaries at each of these institutions. Follow up with an RTI about the status of your complaints. • File an RTI with the office of the DGP of your state to know what investigation the police inspector has done before arresting you (if you have been arrested) or what investigation was done after the filing of the FIR. Trust me, they will quake when they get hit with a well-drafted RTI. The police don’t like RTIs. • Think about sending the Income Tax guys after your in-laws if they claim to have given you dowry or they call it Sthreedhan. Inform the Income Tax guys through a court order about the claims of money given to you. Here is a link to the location of offices (http://tinyurl.com/2rpp7g) by state. If you file a complaint, follow up with an RTI (http://tinyurl.com/32pa5p). Justice Dhingra has given a judgment (Date of Decision: February 23, 2007 CRL.M.C.7262/2006 Smt. Neera Singh Vs THE STATE (GOVT. OF NCT OF DELHI) and ORS) about reporting these kinds of 498A cases to the Income Tax authorities. Here is an excerpt: “If huge cash amounts are alleged to be given at the time of marriage which are not accounted anywhere, such cash transactions should be brought to the notice of the Income Tax Department by the Court so that source of income is verified and the person is brought to law. It is only because the Courts are not insisting upon compliance with the relevant provisions of law while entertaining such complaints and action is taken merely on the statement of the complainant, without any verification that a large number of false complaints are pouring in.” • Sections 182 and 211 of IPC provide punishment for making a wrong complaint and false charges of offence. Similarly Section 358 of Cr. P.C. deals with cases of groundless arrests. • Get your lawyers to file complaints against the in-laws in the police station or a writ petition in the court for admitting to giving dowry. Giving dowry is also a crime. I am basing this on the same judgment by Justice Dhingra. If they admit to not giving you dowry under this pressure, then be assured you can nail them in a perjury case. Get a your lawyer to pursue this angle. If the police refuse to accept your complaint, get a court order for them to do so. Logic dictates that they will accept the complaint as they can extract bribes from the other side. This is one of the fastest ways to settle the case on your terms. • Do not compromise as long as the 498A is on. Ask them to withdraw it before they make any attempts to negotiate a settlement. Be unyielding in your stand. They have more to lose than you do. With a 498A daughter on their hands, these morons are running out of time and options. They need to dump her on some pitiful man. They need your money to buy the other guy and recoup the investment made in the 498A case. As time goes by, the age of the 498A daughter will become a factor. It gets difficult to unload her. • If she filed a 498A to force you into a divorce in order to take off with the boyfriend, file an RCR (Restitution Of Conjugal Rights) and refuse a divorce until this gets sorted out. You will have her on the defensive immediately. Talk to SIF volunteers about this. • Never take the 498A Wife back again. Let her live her life in her parents’ home. I assure you, she is a burden they will be unwilling to bear. In effect, she has condemned herself to a miserable existence. Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 3/10 11/9/07 • Get the women in your family to file complaints in the Mahila Thanas in the event that they are threatened by anyone, including the police. These women’s protection cells are meant for women, not just for the 498A wives. This may help in warding off a DV Act later. • Wish your 498A wife and her parents a long life. They need to repay your tears, with interest. The Hesitation To Fight Back: In spite of the many tools available to fight back, you may be very hesitant to approach the different government agencies to file complaints or fight back through the courts. One of the things you can do is not look at this like a gigantic task, but to break it into a small series of steps to accomplish this task over a period of time. Like all Indians, you distrust the system. I completely understand that feeling. Let me throw some light at our system. The Indian establishment is not meant for the common man. In India, you need to fight to avail yourself of basic services starting with water and electricity. That struggle extends to the services that any government of a civilized nation provides as a matter of right to its citizens, a prime example being security through the police. Through our lives, we are trained to believe that nothing moves unless palms are greased. The average Indian citizen is disgusted with the corruption within the bureaucracy, and will avoid contact with any government agency, leave alone the police. The distrust runs deep. There is hope in the sense that this is a system and it needs things to be quiet. Initially, any attempts to ruffle the system will be met with indifference at best and intimidation at worst. Persist. The system would like to continue to go about its way and if you are persistent, it will respond just to get rid of you and get you off its back. Again, an RTI is a very effective tool to ruffle the system to get it to listen to you. At this juncture, I would like to introduce you to Mrs JN Jayashree. She is wife of a senior IAS officer of Karnataka. Disgusted with the way the govt was treating her honest husband, she set up a website to fight corruption. Attempts have been made to intimidate her and her husband, but this courageous lady is on a rampage and is causing quite an embarrassment to the powers that be. She has been written about in the New York Times, The International Herald Tribune and the Indian Express. You can read about her at her blog, http://fightcorruption.wikidot.com/. The primary reason for mentioning her here is that her blog has many examples of RTIs she has filed that you may want to use as templates. The Indian Police: I start with an apology to the dedicated professionals of the Indian police force. What I have written can be construed as a PR disaster for the Indian Police force. But I also know that none can question the truthfulness of what I have written. Here is an excerpt from an article from the SVNPA (http://tinyurl.com/3yuvfm) on police corruption. I quote: “Over the years, the corruption has spread to other areas of police as well. This was largely due to the steady expansion of the role of police in view of the enactment of a number of social and other legislations that are to be enforced by the police. The success of any social legislation depends on the effectiveness of its enforcement and police have a protective as well as promotional role to perform in this sphere”. Section 498A is a social issue disguised as a criminal issue. 498A fosters corruption, as the very nature of it, due to it its loopholes, exposes the police force to corruption. My task is to raise awareness about this extortion racket and prepare the accused to be aware of what they may face. I needed to present the worse case scenario, which is what my family faced, so that innocent families know what to expect and can prepare for the worst. The police force is an underpaid, ill equipped and ill treated organization. The personnel are constantly under pressure, and they are asked to accomplish a lot, while given meager resources to work with. I have a lot of respect for the men and women who do their best under these conditions. There is always a chance that you will meet an honest, upright police officer. I hope you do. There are cases where the officers and constables have walked away after a preliminary investigation and one meeting with the accused. You may meet decent police inspectors who will treat you with courtesy and do all they can to help you. All the same, be prepared for the worst. The Indian Police Force has many outstanding officers. Among the tribe of the IPS (http://tinyurl.com/3dhu8v) officers, the chances of finding gentlemen are higher than in the lower ranks. Do your homework and approach them for help. Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 4/10 11/9/07 I harbor no animosity towards the Indian police force and its dedicated personnel, but I do wish that senior officers reign in corrupt officers who terrorize innocent civilians who get entangled in a criminal case due to idiotic laws. We have an army to be proud of. Why not a police force? I’ve covered the Indian Police force extensively as the police play the primary role in this extortion racket. The intent of this extensive coverage is to ensure that you understand what is going on and so can stand up to your rights and be treated in accordance with the law. Here is the link (http://tinyurl.com/2kf5az) to the website of an outstanding IPS officer, murdered by naxalites. A police officer I would like to meet is Mr.Abhinav Kumar, IPS. He writes for the Indian Express on occasion and was formerly a reporter with India Today. Here is a link (http://tinyurl.com/2pf6k2) to some of his writings and exploits. Here is another link (http://tinyurl.com/37zvrg) to an article by B Raman. Here are some stats on casualties (http://tinyurl.com/2v6sap) suffered by the police nationally. At this juncture, I would like to thank Dr. Arvind Verma for the excellent and insightful articles he has written about the Indian police force. I have quoted extensively from his articles in Indiatogether and he has revealed a lot about the Indian Police force. I have collected his articles in one place and you can access them at this link (http://tinyurl.com/383orp). Filing Complaints Against The Police: The police play a big part in this extortion racket. They are supposed to act as guards that determine eligibility of the accused, entry into the clogged criminal justice system. In reality, they never investigate. In the words of Justice Dhingra (Crl.Appeal No. 696/2004, 01.Nov.2007): “In all these cases in the name of investigation, except recording statement of complainant and her few relatives nothing is done by police. The police do not verify any circumstantial evidence nor collect any other evidence about the claims made by the complainant. No evidence about giving of dowry or resources of the complainant’s family claiming spending of huge amounts is collected by the police. This all is resulting into gross misuse of the provisions of law.” The good news is that these are ultimately government employees; they are subject to a lot of rules and regulations. In the words of the Home Ministry, “The police must recognize that they are members of the public, with the only difference that in the interest of the society and on its behalf they are employed to give full time attention to duties, which are normally incumbent on every citizen to perform.” In other word they are members of the public and they have a job to do. That job is not to harass or intimidate the public. If the harassment and intimidation get out of hand, you can complain about the concerned officer to the Home Secretary or the DGP of the state you live in. I agree that it is a little difficult to reach them, but try. Persist. You will be able to gain access to them. Once you get an appointment, be prepared to submit your complaint at the first meeting. These men are IAS and IPS officers and in most cases, they are capable, decent individuals. Make sure that you respect them and their time. They know about the abuse that is going on. At the cost of contradicting myself, I would like to add a word of caution. I am a little disappointed with IPS officers too, but amongst their tribe you will have a better chance of finding decent, honest people than in subordinate ranks. Again, get the women in your family to file the complaint, starting from the point when you seek an appointment with the Home Secretary. Also, doors open easily for women. A Few Suggestions On Filing Complaints. • Be absolutely factual in your complaint. Do not add any masala to your complaint. Stick to the facts. This is a complaint, not a novel. • Do not attempt to settle scores with officers who treated you decently, but were compelled to do their duty. If you do, in my eyes, you are no different than your 498A wife. • Before you meet high-ranking officers, write up the complaint in a timeline or a sequence of events. Be as accurate as possible. Get it reviewed by your lawyer. There will be a temptation to introduce extraneous events into the complaint. Desist from doing so. • When the machinery of the state moves to address your complaint, it will place the burden of proof on you. Be prepared for the stress that will follow. The inquiries can be taxing. Be patient. Action will be taken. Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 5/10 11/9/07 • Never put anything in your complaint that will damage your credibility. The state is listening to you; don’t lie to it. • If a complaint is investigated and found to be without basis, doors will close on your face. Keep this in mind. • Request the authorities to let you know the outcome of their inquiry. Tell them you will exercise your right to information by filing an RTI in a few months if this is not done. The outcome of the inquiry may be helpful in winning your case. The Courts On Police Powers: The Supreme Court of India, through its landmark judgments, has time and again signaled that the police are not above the law and that a citizen has the rights that need to be respected. Ensure that you have a copy of all these judgments with you in order to have your rights respected. The police can be nailed on contempt of court if they violate your Fundamental Rights. You can seek compensation for illegal detention and/or torture. Another way to get the police from harassing you will be to file what is known as a Writ Mandamus. Here is an explanation of Writ Mandamus (S.M. Sharma Vs. Bipen Kumar Tiwari : (1970) 3 SCR 946), where in the Court observed: "It appears to us that, though the Code of Criminal Procedure gives to the police unfettered power to investigate all cases where they suspect that a cognizable offence has been committed, in appropriate cases an aggrieved person can always seek a remedy by invoking the power of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution under which, if the High Court could be convinced that the power of investigation has been exercised by a police officer mala fide, the High Court can always issue a writ of mandamus restraining the police officer from misusing his legal power.” The Lawyers: Lawyers make the difference between winning and losing your case. You must look for a lawyer who is smart, competent and has integrity. Integrity is of primary importance. Some lawyers in India have been selling their clients out. Never go for one who advises you to compromise. I had two of my friends who were burned by this. If any of these lawyers say compromise, think about their motives. Try to find a lawyer who is an insider. Make sure that it is someone who knows the court system and its’ internal workings. Do your research. Mynation.net has a list of good lawyers. Look it up for reference. Talk to others who have been through a 498A. Interview several of them. Don’t hire the first lawyer who you meet. Here is a hint. Go with the one who gives you the brutal truth. You are looking for a lawyer, not a therapist. My lawyers turned to be the brothers I never had. They fought to get my family out under very adverse conditions, which included harassment by the police, a corrupt magistrate who would ignore their pleadings and above all, physical discomfort. They wore the same clothing for a period of several days attempting to bail my family out. They knew the laws, they knew the loopholes and they finally succeeded in getting my family out. Yes, they were expensive, but they didn’t betray us in spite of my father in law offering them monetary incentives to suspend their efforts to bail my family out. These are the kind of lawyers you would ideally want to be on your side. Approaching The Courts: When a 498A is filed, the first impulse will be to run to the courts with a quash petition. You are convinced about your innocence and you are sure that the courts will exonerate you. The process is slow. Be prepared for disappointment. The courts do not like to quash cases in the investigation phase unless there are extenuating circumstances. All the same, be careful about how you draft the petition. Prepare a comprehensive and logical petition. Walk in with your eyes wide open. Know the attitude of the judge on the bench that deals with 498A. If you are heading to the court of a great judge like Justice Shiv Narain Dhingra, you will be fine. Otherwise, back off and think of alternatives. Judges in the lower judiciary are humans with the same failings though they are held to a higher standard in theory. The former Chief Justice P N Bhagwati had said: ‘‘Judges should not use strong and carping language while criticizing the conduct of parties or their witnesses. They must act with sobriety, moderation and restraint. They must have the humility to recognize that they are not infallible”. Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 6/10 11/9/07 That is all I am willing to say. However, please check what the former President Of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, has to say about the Judiciary: “Our society is going through unique dynamics due to the shortage of leadership with nobility. The only hope the nation cherishes and looks to is the judiciary with its excellence and impeccable integrity... This casts a very heavy responsibility on the entire judicial system to live up to the expectations reposed in it and to maintain the sacred aura attached to it unsullied. Qualities of honesty and integrity are synonymous with each member of the judicial system” The courts know about the abuse of this law. Here is a small sampling of what they have said in some judgments and bail orders: • While on this issue, it is necessary to take notice of a growing tendency in business circles to convert purely civil disputes into criminal cases. This is obviously on account of a prevalent impression that civil law remedies are time consuming and do not adequately protect the interests of lenders/creditors. Such a tendency is seen in several family disputes also, leading to irretrievable break down of marriages/families. There is also an impression that if a person could somehow be entangled in a criminal prosecution, there is a likelihood of imminent settlement. Any effort to settle civil disputes and claims, which do not involve any criminal offence, by applying pressure though criminal prosecution should be deprecated and discouraged. -Supreme Court, Indian Oil Corporation Vs NEPC India Ltd., & Ors., 20/07/2006 • The criminal case against her in which she was accused was compounded by the petitioner on the basis of compromise. She is living with her husband. She wants to use criminal justice as a tool against the petitioners who are her sister-in-laws and mother-in-law. She wants to enjoy the company of the husband keeping other relatives on tenterhooks. -Delhi HC, Crl. M.C. No. 8188-90/2006, 28.03.2007 • There is no reference to the dowry articles in the complaint. No particulars of dowry have been given. The complaint is full of character assassination of the husband and his family. -Delhi HC, Bail Application No.1638/2005, 26/07/2005 Consequences For Filing A False 498A: There is a lot written about 498A, but nothing is said about the consequences for the filers of a false 498A. The filers of false 498As do so out of malice or bad advice, but they are not informed of the consequences. When a person is married for the first time, there is an innocence that goes into the relationship. This innocence is the bedrock of trust in the relationship of being man and wife. The margin of error and security is greater in a first marriage, especially for women. There may be a mistaken belief that after filing a frivolous criminal case against the husband, the woman may get her revenge or settlement and move on to a divorce and a second marriage and live a “happy married life”. The fact of the matter is that the innocence is lost and with it will go a lot of other intangible things in life, such as trust, which can make a married life a blessing. Being burned once, the element of distrust in the second marriage will be greater. And in order to make things work, there will be a greater pressure to conform or adjust. The margin for error for the woman will also go down considerably in a second marriage. I am not saying that a second chance at marriage is a bad thing nor am I attempting to judge people who get married the second time. I am talking about the situation that the dear 498A wives with their silly temperaments will potentially find themselves in if they take the path of frivolous lawsuits. This time, filing a 498A to get out will not work, as the woman will be branded an abuser of the law. There are always exceptions to what I have described. But the outline holds true. The 498A wives, blinded by anger and greed, may want to think twice about what they want to put on their profiles at matrimonial sites, before filing frivolous cases. Would they be willing to mention that they filed a false 498A? Why not? How many men will respond to such ads if they do? What makes them think that they’ll succeed at a second marriage when they couldn’t make the first work? And have they considered the time a court case can take to complete? The best source to know more about the consequences of filing a false case is the document by Madhu Purnima Kishwar (http://tinyurl.com/2rbmxs). She is a respected fighter for women’s rights, unlike the radical feminists of India, and I think you need to read what she has to say. Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 7/10 11/9/07 I’ve put together a few points of my own: • Divorce after a 498A is guaranteed. 498A is a nuclear weapon for relationships. Once it is used, it ends everything good in a relationship. Lately, there has been a trend where women are coming back to their husbands after realizing the mistake they made by resorting to 498A. • She won’t get married again. The reason being our very conservative society. Feminism and standing up for women’s rights may be a fashionable thing to bandy about, but no family, including the family of the false filer of a 498A or the staunchest feminist, would like to admit one of these false 498A filers into their homes. This is all about power politics in relationships and once it is known that a woman had filed a false 498A, she will be treated like radioactive material. • Her sister(s) may eventually run off with the milkman or something along similar lines may happen as they risk remaining spinsters. • Any sisters-in-law she may have will turn against her as time goes by. Her brothers may not get married again. Think about this. Would you be willing to send your sister/daughter into a home where there is woman who has quarreled with a decent husband and used the law to terrorize him and his family? How happy would your sister/daughter be in a home like that? How secure would a family feel, if the sister of the woman who filed a false 498A enters the house as a bride? It also says a lot about that family that they did not discourage her from doing so. • The filer of a false 498A may face arrest under Section 182. The sentence may be range up to 6 months and a fine or both. • If children are involved, their development will be threatened as fathers play a crucial role in the up bringing of a child. There is also a chance for the 498A filer to start having affairs and neglect the children. There are instances where this is happening. • If the 498A is being filed at the instigation of close relatives and for no valid justification, be sure of this, once the relatives get what they want, they will abandon the 498A wife. • In the case of a woman who files a 498A just to extort cash, or harass her husband and his family, there is a certain disdain with which she will be treated by her family and society, especially if the plan backfires. • If the 498A is being filed at the instigation of close relatives, and if they do succeed in extorting money from the husband, once the lawyer, the parents and everyone else gets a cut, they are going to abandon the woman. • The 498A wives may want to read this article from the LATimes (http://tinyurl.com/2oqllg) to understand how divorce affects the finances of women. • None of us likes to be alone and even the strongest amongst us will feel pangs of loneliness. I believe that men are better equipped to deal with loneliness due to biological factors. It is a completely different issue for the 498A Wives. They are condemned to live alone. They had it all and they blew it and they know it. • Keep an eye out on the matrimonial sites. You may just end up on the floor with laughter. Some Statistics: These are statistics are from a memorandum submitted by Rakshak to the MOIA on July 17th 2007. These stats were obtained by means of an RTI from the home ministry. As you can see, there are close to 5lakhs people who are undergoing trial and each year it just gets worse. The latest numbers are from 2005. Year Total No. Of Persons under Trial Including those from previous year Cases Compounded or Withdrawn Trial Completed Trial Pending No. of Persons Convicted % Trial remained Pending Convicted To Trials Completed 2005 573881 13447 74496 485938 14583 84.7 19.6 2004 537137 13717 71192 452228 14706 84.2 20.7 2003 500166 11229 70167 418770 12558 83.7 17.9 Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 8/10 11/9/07 Amendments To 498A: The statistics give you an idea about how widespread is the abuse of this law. SIF and other groups are pushing for the amendment to 498A. I don’t see this happening for a while, as the entrenched interests are too powerful to stop this from happening. My personal belief is that the laws “to protect women” must be made more stringent and easier to abuse. A more people get entangled in this mess, the pain would bring the anger to boil. A good step in this direction would be to pass the sexual harassment bill in the form pushed by women’s groups. The hormone driven BPO call centers will be the first place where trouble will start. This will cause more people to get entangled in gender-biased laws and the resulting anger and plunge in productivity will highlight the idiocy of these laws faster. The fun will start after the business community gets into the fight. The moment the word “amendment” is uttered, there will be scores of radical feminist groups and other organizations such as CSR, AIDWA, etc, taking to the streets to prevent any kind of a discussion from taking place. The law making bodies must have the courage to face them down. These groups do not represent the true voice of the women of India. If 498A is to be amended, it must be made bailable to eliminate harassment by the police and end the jailing of innocents. It should never be made compoundable. If it is made compoundable and not bailable, the extortion racket will continue as before as nothing really changes as the courts are allowing the withdrawal of the cases anyway. The brides of today will be the mothers in law of tomorrow. I wonder how many of these 498A abusing brides may suffer the same fate as their mothers in law if they are unfortunate enough to have a daughter in law who shares their temperament and attitude towards life. Would they still be opposed to the amendment to 498A then? Conclusion: IPC 498A was introduced to protect women. It has morphed into an extortion racket. In the name of protecting women, the establishment sends semi skilled laborers in uniform into our homes to extort money, all on the basis of an allegation. Any attempt to amend the law is resisted by entrenched interests and radical feminists, whose existence is threatened if they are perceived as being soft on this issue. They need this misery to continue to justify their existence. 498A is now being used as a wedge between men and women for narrow political purposes. The division of our country along the lines of religion, caste and language is over. The division along the lines of gender has started. There is no civilized country on this planet that allows a blood relative of a male to be arrested on the basis of a complaint. The promoters and defenders of idiotic laws like 498A also need to understand that they will fail in their perverted purpose eventually. Radical feminism, as a movement has failed wherever it has raised its ugly head. It has succeeded in lowering the status of women in all the places it has been. I predict the same fate for it in India, though it will take time. The women who are the real victims can’t get justice as the courts are clogged with the false cases filed by the 498A wives and there are so many frivolous cases being filed, that the police don’t take the real victims seriously. The police are so used to making money off 498A cases, that they won’t even pursue the case unless they are bribed or promised a cut in the settlement. Finally, in all this insanity, the question I would like to ask is, what does one hope to achieve by enacting a law like 498A? It has failed in its stated purpose. Torture by the Indian police, be it mental or physical is ILLEGAL. They cannot extract a confession from you by force. That is ILLEGAL. Stand up to the corrupt officers of the Indian police! You are backed by the weight and might of the Supreme Court Of India. The judgments stand as testimony to this. A Little About Me: I am just a regular guy that got entangled in this mess. I think you know me by now and there is not a lot to say. I made a mistake and that was getting married to this Indian woman. I was divorced years ago and the 498A was filed years after my last meeting with her. I escaped arrest, as I was not at home. But the police got their hands on my family. They were terrorized to reveal my whereabouts, to confess and to pay up. The demand was 40Lakhs, put forth by the Indian police. After being subjected to sheer terror for months, my family acted and eliminated the police as a factor. If I had known about our basic rights and the powers of the police, a lot of unnecessary suffering on their part could have been avoided. This remains my regret. The suffering undergone by my family drives me to educate you about your rights so that you can avoid what my family was put through. I’ve spent every spare hour of each one of my days, Copyright: ipc498A.wordpress.com 9/10 11/9/07 since the day my family was arrested, reading, researching, and putting all this together so that you can understand what 498A is all about. I hope that you will avoid the terror that the police will unleash on you and come out a winner. I can’t counsel you or provide legal advice so don’t ask. For that, you need to contact the volunteers of Save Indian Family or educate yourself like I did, or talk to a good lawyer. Never forget this. This game is played to break you down and get you to give in. I experienced this first hand. I was in tears while they had my family in custody. My parents are 65+ and frail. There was nothing I could do except give in or hold firm and ensure that retribution follows. You know the choice I made. Stay strong and be calm. You will win. I dedicate this to my family. They willingly faced extraordinary hardship and sheer terror, but didn’t surrender to the police. On account of their sacrifice, I didn’t lose all that I’ve worked for. I leave you with the 3rd sloka from the 2nd Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita. To truly understand this sloka, please read the version of the Bhagavad-Gita authored by Swami Ranganathananda. It is in three volumes and worth owning.