Different Modes to crack 498a case

Dear all,

After being in SIFF forum for last 2 years & based on my own experience, i have tried to enumerate the pros & cons of retaliating the 498a family to close the case, with various modes.

Request your opinion to alter or refine the points.

Regards,
RKV
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DIFFERENT MODES FOR CRACKING 498A CASE:
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1. FOLLOWING THE TRIAL & PROVING INNOCENCE.

Advantages:
1. Text book method by following judicial system & get the formal acquittal order.
2. During trial, we can file perjury U/s 340 & Defamation suit, which will destroy the 498a family completely.
3. Scope for financial compensation thru defamation suit.

Disadvantages:
1.Time consuming; have to be patient with great Indian Judiciary’s efficiency.
2.Will take anything between 1 – 5 Yrs.
3.Need to cope up half baked lawyers.
 
2. FILING COUNTER-CASES AGAINST 498a FAMILY.
Advantages:
1. By giving the same medicine to the opponents, 498a case may get over in short time.
Disadvantages:
1.Very delicate in nature. Needs to do lot of home work & legal analysis before retaliating with counter-cases.
2.Costly affair & time consuming.
3.Counter-cases may back fire, if not launched properly.
4.Some counter-cases may be of cooked nature, which will be a “misuse of law”.
 
3. COMPLAINING TO HIGHER AUTHORITIES:
Advantages:
1.Taking the case details to all levels of higher authorities such as Human rights, DGP, Collector, Commissioner, Home Secretary, Income tax Dept. etc, will solve the case in shorter time.
2.Cheaper mode & can close the case in shorter time duration.(1- 6 Months)
3.Can handle without much legal aid.

Disadvantages:
1.This mode will be applicable based on 498a family members’ profile.
2.Complaints have to be placed immediately after the threats.
3.Government machinery may not work with expected efficiency.
 
4. USING RTI APPLICATIONS AGINST 498A FAMILY:
Advantages:
1.Cheaper mode & consumes relatively lesser time to close the case.(2 – 6 Months)
2.We can screw the 498a family royally, with this “Legal Cruelty” tool.
3.May cause irretrievable damage to the opponents, apart from closure of 498a case.
4.Can handle without legal aid.
5.No limit & can fire numerous RTIs based on the opponents’ profile..

Disadvantages:
1.498a family members or witnesses needs to be government job.
2.Needs to cope up with time delay for RTI replies from govt. departments & information commission response for appeals.
3.Government machinery may not work with expected efficiency.
4.Very indirect method of attacking the opponents.
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Attempt to frustrate RTI Applicant with bogus replies

More recently, bureaucrats and sarkari babus have found a very unique way to hide their inactions and inefficacies in maintaining organized crime information. An RTI activist from Delhi had filed an RTI application to know the following,
1. Report of cases related to 498A with following details for each police station wise for each district of national capital territory of Delhi from 01-01-2007 to 31-12-2007.

a. FIR no /Other IPC sections included along with 498a
b. Case filed date
c. Brief summary of case
d. Complainant’s name, age, qualification, occupation,
e. Every accused names, age, qualification, residential address, occupation and sex.
f. Arrested (how many days in remand) or Anticipatory bail (session / high court)
g. Current status of the case. If trial completed then names of people got convicted and what is the conviction.
h. If a case if found false in trail or FIR stage, what action was taken against complainant, people/police who filed/helped in filing that case?

2. Statistics of 498A cases with following details in following format in zone/district wise
a. No of 498A cases filed in each zone/district, year wise from year 2005 to till date
b. Total no of 498a cases when daughter in law is alive
c. Total no of 498a cases after death of daughter in law
d. Total No of accused when daughter in law is alive
e. Total No of accused after death of daughter in law
f. Total No of people got arrested
g. Total No of people who got anticipatory bail
h. Total No of accused who are women
i. No of cases found false at FIR stage
j. No of cases found false at Trail stage
k. No of cases got convicted when daughter in law is alive
l. No of cases got convicted after death of daughter in law
m. No of people got convicted (MALE/FEMALE)
n. How many cases are filed under dowry prohibition act 3 for giving dowry

The gist of the reply that the applicant got was something like; The Ministry of Home Affairs divided the task into all the DCPs of the Delhi Region and asked them to reply separately. Each of the DCPs either presented the information in a much distorted form requiring time consuming data analysis and data collation, while others clearly stated that such information is not maintained by them per se and need to personally inspect the records for which the compensation has to be paid by the applicant to the tune of Rs. 24, 332 and Rs. 25, 224 as demanded by 2 of the DCPs which means a total of Rs. 49, 556.
This is atrocious for the following reasons:-
1) Police department is a public department, meant for public service, being funded by the tax payer’s money and RTI Act lays down guidelines for access to public information and has held the government officers accountable for the same to provide info as it is a citizen’s fundamental right. And demanding money for a task which falls within the ambit of police duty from a citizen is sheer insult and lack of recognition of a citizen’s basic rights
2) In light of the information asked, it is very clear that only the records which ought to be maintained by police are being sought for and failure of the police on part of non maintenance of such records only reflects the inefficacies of the police and the police is demanding money to cover its own follies which is nothing less than atrocious.
3) It is a well known fact that IPC 498A (Dowry harassment law) is widely misused to the tune of 98 % and the police is not only well aware of the situation, but is also hand –in – gloves to promote the misuse owing to its own corruption and with these replies, attempting to abstain from giving information and frustrating the applicant, only justifies the role of a corrupt police force in advocating this misuse.

Arrive with guns blazing-Counters, Quash, Dismissal(at Police, At court(before or after Chargesheet))

Subject: Counters, Quash, Dismissal(at Police, At court(before or after Chargesheet))

Hi All,

Option 1- Before chargesheet; You can give evidence to Police and ask for a report of dismissal(Type A report - no evidence to make a case of 498a, or Type B report- stating that the Allegations are false!, both of which happens only in rarest of rare cases(zero probability almost) , because police are shit scared of women org, women and generally won't burn their hands in these matters).

Next option 2->Before chargesheet is given by police to the court-Quash it at the same court(don't know the section of Cr.PC for this), or High court/Sessions(Cr.PC 482), showing major fractures in allegations which do not need trials, and are self-evident.

Next Option 3->Apply for dismissal after chargesheet is submitted to the court(Cr.PC 239(see the bottom of this post for explanation), Guptaji will elucidate about this beautifully :). The only motivation for waiting till chargesheet to get submitted in the court, is that after this the police cannot make the charges more deadlier against you(fudging it with more unfavourable charges), and since usually police can be bought by the other party and could be made to add more charges and unfavourable stuff in the chargesheet, if they decide to counter your attempts of Options1 & 2.

Counter cases can be filed at any time(though waiting till chargesheet is submitted to the court is advantageous in some ways). Though Advocates rarely recommend it or agree that this is even a possibility before a "verdict" on the 498a case is declared in full(possibly by Supreme court, if the other party decides to appeal until the Top court!). See this post for IPC sections which could be used in your counter cases, considering the facts of your specific case.

This is 'could' be just because 1) they do not want 'their' cases to end that "easily" and hence lose the opportunity to feed on your insecurities(with all respect to the good advocates here, if u feel that my observations are not constructive or right, please do correct me for the general good). 2) Another reason why advocates do not take initiatives for counter cases is because some of them are truly 'incapable' and ignorant about these matters in their rat race of "setting" and "greasing" kind of lowly ways of "practice" and their intellectually-bankrupt-to-the-core schools of thought!. 3) Another reason why lawyers do not seem to do any thing which can give you sure and swift results is that everyone is hand in glove with every other advocate, so they won't demolish the case of their loving counterparts who could be lawyer pals of the same court(you scratch my back, I scratch urs!- fraternity and emotional bonding issues!!!).

I am making it clear that I am not talking about good advocates of caliber and integrity, who if appointed will do wonders for your case- but I am yet to meet such an advocate in my sojourn of 4+ years in these torrid rapids.

Warm Regards,

Gokul - http://gokul.go.to, 9821414336(Mumbai)

PS: Cr.PC 239: When accused shall be discharged.- If, upon considering the police report and the documents sent with it under section 173 and making such examination, if any, of the accused as the Magistrate thinks necessary and after giving the prosecution and the accused an opportunity of being heard, the Magistrate considers the charge against the accused to be groundless, he shall discharge the accused, and record his reasons for so doing.

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need guidance Posted by: "yangaldaspk" Thu May 10, 2007 11:39 am (PST)
hi
i am 498a-ed. i got AB for my parents and sister and self. have proof that case is false. should i file 182 ipc or wait till chargesheet is failed.it is clear case of misuse of laws, and waste of time for police and courts.how can i proceed from here. can i file counter cases.

Preparing to Defend your legal problems

Understand the false case against you is just another problem, which can and need to be solved

Analyse the FIR and their statements for contradictions within(statements and written statements at different times may have contradictions, example incidents, weights, numbers etc.).

Pick up allegations against which you have evidence on the contrary, and put a petition to Police station and DCP in-charge asking them to investigate on these lines and to submit final report accordingly.

The Police can bring out three types of Final Reports(in which case the complaint will not be prosecuted in the Court, since the allegations are not maintainable at a court of law) as follows 1) Type A Final-Evidence of Allegations is not enough to be tried in the court 2) Type B final- Allegations are false, hence need not be tried in court 3) Investigation on the Allegations are inconclusive, so need not/cannot be tried in the court. Though these are technically possible, the police does not bother to neither take the responsibility of investigating not defending such conclusions by them!. But it is your right to get a proper report on the above lines and avoid court trials/litigation.

For the court to try/prosecute you, the police should be submitting a "Charge-Sheet, usually even in this case the police seldom come out with any inference of their own, they just compile all allegations and statements from the complainant and all the counters and statements from the accused and avoid taking any responsibility.

If you suspect any bias in the authorities against you, send petitions to higher authorities, while keeping the erring personnel a copy of your petitions so that its acts as a pressure to act in accordance to justice. See a related post here: http://bok498a.blogspot.com/2006/08/post-498a-scenario-when-passport-is.html .

To come up with specific ways to counter your specific problems, first you have to think with a problem-solving attitude, and not panic or be despondent. You know the ways to get out, only if you think calmly. All the best.