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Greed for dowry gold: SC awards 3-mth imprisonment, *3 lakh fine to groom

New Delhi: A groom’s greed for dowry gold tore apart his marriage within three days, entailed dowry harassment prosecution for 19 years, in-carceration for three months, and now the Supreme Court has asked him to pay a compensation of Rs 3 lakh to the bride, who has since married another and settled abroad.

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The marriage took place on Feb 3, 2006. The parents of the bride presented her 60 sovereigns of gold and the groom 10 sovereigns. But the groom, an IT professional, acted pricey and demanded additional 30 sovereigns for him to participate in the post marriage ceremonies at the bride’s place.

Midway through the reception, the groom’s father took him away from the reception ‘mandap’ (dais) accusing the bride’s parents of not presenting the 100 sovereigns. The woman, a corporate executive, could take no more of her husband’s greed-based tantrums and decided to lodge a police complaint under Section 498A of IPC and Sec 4 of the Dowry Pre vention Act. The trial court at Saidapet convicted the groom under provisions of IPC and DP Act and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment with a fine of Rs 3,000 under Section 498A of IPC and a sentence of one year under Sec 4 of DP Act. An additional sessions judge upheld the conviction and sentence.

Madras High Court confirmed the conviction of the groom but reduced the sentence to two years. When the groom appealed against the HC verdict in the SC, he was asked to surrender and lodged in jail for nearly three months before the apex court granted him bail.

Midway through the reception, the groom’s father took him away from the reception ‘mandap’ (dais) accusing the bride’s parents of not presenting the 100 sovereigns. The woman, a corporate executive, could take no more of her husband’s greed-based tantrums and decided to lodge a police complaint.

A bench of Justices KV Vishwanathan and SVN Bhatti examined the evidence produced before the trial court and said, “We are satisfied that the ingredients of Sec 498-A of IPC are fully satisfied and that the groom subjected the bride to harassment with a view to coercing her and her mother to meet the unlawful demand for the gold sovereigns and continued to harass her when she and her relatives failed to meet such demand. The ingredients of Section 498-A of IPC and Section 4 of DP Act are clearly made out.”

Noticing that the groom had already undergone three months of incarceration during the trial and after the HC judgment, the bench said, “The marriage was solemnised on March 31, 2006, and the couple lived together for three days. As noticed from the HC order, the de facto complainant (bride) is married and settled abroad. The case has been prolonged for a period of nearly 19 years. Both the groom and bride have moved on in life.”

While reducing the sentence to the period of incarceration already undergone, An Justices Viswanathan and Bhatti directed the man to deposit Rs 3 lakh within four weeks before the Saidapet trial court and directed the court to ensure this money was paid to the woman for the harassment she suffered at the hands of the groom.

The SC said if the money is not paid, then the case would be listed again for further hearing after six months.

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