Mumbai: In rare case, Andheri man gets 1-year rigorous imprisonment for insulting wife’s modesty – Times of India

MUMBAI: In a rare instance, where a husband was found guilty in a criminal case for insulting his wife’s modesty by using abusive language, a magistrate’s court sentenced a 35-year-old Andheri man to year’s rigorous imprisonment. He was sentenced separately for physically abusing her.
Refusing to let him off on a bond of good behaviour, metropolitan magistrate SAR Sayed said that making allegations, uttering obscene and objectionable words about a woman’s character, dignity and self-respect is a social and moral wrong.
“The incident caused mental and emotional trauma and great hardship to the informant [wife]. Such kind of immoral gestures, approach and conduct of a man towards a woman, more particularly when he is the husband… doesn’t warrant benefit under the Probation of Offenders Act,” the magistrate’s court said.
The man was also ordered to pay his wife Rs 10,000 for the trauma suffered. He had sent her vulgar, abusive text messages after which he abused her when she complained to him. While sentencing him, the magistrate said it should have a social goal. “The accused must realise that offence committed by him has not only [to be] treated as dent in the life of the victim but also gives a message to society and like-minded. offenders,” the magistrate said.
Relying on the deposition of the woman, the magistrate said that the evidence given by such a victim was on a higher pedestal than that of an injured witness. “In the latter case, injury is in physical form, but in the former, injury is in physical, psychological and emotional form. Therefore, insistence upon corroboration to her evidence is not material,” the magistrate said, adding that the investigating officer was negligent by not seizing the phone or memory card with the messages.
“But, noticeably, there is direct cogent oral evidence of informant. Therefore, lacuna on the part of investigating officer will not throw away or adversely affect the entire prosecution case,” the court said.
The woman told the court she was married to the accused in 2018 and was his “second wife”. She said that he lived with both wives. The woman said that after her relationship with the accused became acrimonious, he started sending her obscene messages, accusing her of being a sex worker.