I thank ‘Sakal Publications’ for expressing my views and repeat my vow to keep fighting this social menace in the indian families till my last breath. May the Almighty God give that strength. I hope for support from all quarters.

There are thousands of such harassed men along with their families. See below for more inputs.
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See a judgement by Supreme Court about misuse of IPC 498a, terming it legal terrorism: http://at498a.blogspot.com/2008/05/sc-citation-for-legal-terrorism-writ.html (Original link in government site: http://www.judis.nic.in/supremecourt/qrydisp.aspx?filename=29439 ) Excerpts are quoted below:

” But as has been rightly contended by the petitioner many instances have come to light where the complaints are not bonafide and have filed with obligue motive.In such cases acquittal of the accused does not in all cases wipe out the ignomy suffered during and prior to trial.”

“But by misuse of the provision a new legal terrorism can beunleashed. The provision is intended to be used a shield and not assassins’weapon. ”

” Merely because the provision is constitutional and intra vires, does not give a licence to unscrupulous persons to wreck personal vendetta or unleash harassment. It may, therefore, become necessary for the legislature to find out ways how the makers of frivolous complaints or allegations can be appropriately dealt with. Till then the Courts have to take care of the situation withinthe existing frame work. As noted the object is to strike at the roots of dowry menace. But by misuse of the provision a new legal terrorism can be unleashed. The provision is intended to be used a shield and not assassins’ weapon. ”

There are two categories who do not get justice in implementation of these laws(for women protection, ie. IPC 498a , Protection of Women against Domestic violence Act(DV act in short), Prevention of Dowry Act, etc.)

The first category who do not get justice is the original benefactors of these laws themselves, the genuinely victimised women- Police or the so called Women welfare organisations, do not even entertain complaints(for example they do not register FIRs) nor investigate the facts, if they feel they do not see the scope of getting money from either the complainant or the accused(wife or the husband respectively).

The second category who do not get justice is the accused in case of false cases, which are initiated without proper investigations , this is done with a view to extort money from the accused, or to make them submit to the terms of the false case’ complainant(s).

In the above process Police and other authorities like CAW(crime against women cell- prevalent in Northern India), Vanitha sahaya vani, NCW, blatantly dis regard guidelines of arrest, rights of the accused, other guidelines spelt out in landmark Supreme court judgements(at498a.blogspot.com/2008/04/arrest-guidelines-in-case-of.html).

IPC 498a: Unlike in other criminal cases, one complainant’s(wife) vengefulness can get an entire family(husband’s) arrested and subsequently caught in legal wrangles for an extended period of time.

No investigation or warrant needed before arrest and start of proceedings(since the crime u/s IPC 498a is cognisable), and there is no fear of punishment even if the complaint is found to be false later (after investigation or lengthy trial), these are two major reasons why IPC 498a is misused widely as pressure-tactic(reasons of misuse are mentioned towards the bottom of this mail)

Only 2% conviction in 498a- an ineffective law prone to misuse(research report by Center for social research: http://www.csrindia.org/projects/research_Section%20498A.html (Seethe section -> Findings of the Study: Out of 100 cases that are ordered for investigation under 498A, only in 2 cases the accused get convicted

Supreme court itself terming this trend of misuse as Legal Terrorism[Sushil Kumar Sharma Vs. UOI and Ors - Writ Petition (C) No. 141/2005].

An innocent man gets arrested u/s 498a every 5 minutes, a lady gets wrongfully arrested every 23 minutes, a minor child(under 18) arrested every day, a senior citizen every 2.4 hours(source National Crime Research Bureau): http://www.rakshak.info/sitebuilder/preview/resources_MP_appeal.html & http://at498a.blogspot.com/2008/01/innocent-gets-arrested-every-5-minutes.html

Section 498A was introduced in 1983 to protect women from cruelty and harassment by her in-laws. Nevertheless it has undeniably morphed into an extortion racket which is only growing by the day. 3,90,397 persons(of which 87,830(22.5%) were women themselves!!!) were arrested under Section 498A in 2004, 2005 & 2006 as per the data published by the National Crime Research Bureau(NCRB).

So over 87,000 women also have been arrested without evidence or investigation in case of IPC 498a cases, in three years(2004 to 2006) so its not just a matter of Harrassed Men, its a clear case of Families in distress due to legal terrorism. Another point to note is that in IPC 498a and Dowry Deaths(304B) the percentage of women arrested are more than 22% of the total number of people arrested(compared to around 5% women in the total arrested in other crimes, see the hyperlinks above for 2004, 2005 and 2006 to get the table of statistics).

The attached file gives the data for arrested people in different groups for year 2006, you can notice that there are around 280 children under 18 years of age as well as around 4700 senior citizens(above 60 years) who got arrested in IPC 498a(cruelty by husband and relatives).
1000s of Victim cases: http://victims-of-law.blogspot.com/

100s of media clips: http://www.youtube.com/group/saveindianfamily

High socio-economic profile of victims(IIM, IIT, Software engineers, Merchant Navy, NRI, Industrialists, Rich husbands/family): Easy targets and better yield in case of money extortion.

Save Indian Family Movement: Brief History of SIF, Objectives and FAQ
SIFF(Save Indian Family Foundation) came into formal existence in 2005 as a yahoogroup of individual members and NGOs. Nevertheless , the movement can be traced back to 2003 when a group of individual members coordinated themselves and helped each other with information and other relevant issues, through internet discussion boards, emails and some other yahoo groups. At present SIFF is a registered entity, with a membership of over 50,000 people and over 20 NGOs.

SIFF’s primary aim is to facilitate a better family system for the progress of a family and hence positive progress of India.

Read more about our Save Indian Family scope, awareness and other objectives……… at: http://at498a.blogspot.com/2007/09/sif-awareness-article-for-newsletter-of.html

SIF Found with help of RTI(Right to Information Act in 2005) (Source: Ministry of Home Affairs, RTI No. 24013/20/2006-SC/ST-W) :

Also take a look at the article which appeared in ‘Harmony’ magazine, about organisations fighting against legal terrorism(which has reported the below data too, also blogged at http://at498a.blogspot.com/2008/04/caught-in-vise-article-about-sif-in.html).
Nos of cases u/s IPC 498a registered in 2005: 58319
•Nos of Cases Dismissed at charge sheet level: 10,491 (18%)
•Nos of Cases Charge sheeted on face value of complaint: 47,828 (82%)
•Nos of Cases Where the accused were not guilty (Acquitted): 24,127 (41%)
•Nos of cases where the charges were genuine (Convicted): 5739 (9.8%)

For these 58319 registered cases, 134757 people underwent arrest under 498a and Dowry Prohibition Act.
Age wise distribution:
Below 18 years: 358 (0.2 %)
Above 60 years: 4744 (3.5 % )
between 18-60 : 129655 (96 %)

World Health Organization (WHO) WARNS

The World Health Organization (WHO) has explicitly cited the misuse of anti-dowry law by daughters-in-law, as one of the primary reasons for elder abuse in India. (Pls refer: http://www.saveindianfamily.org/blogs/2005/06/26/elder-abuse-in-india And http://www.who.int/hpr/ageing/MissingVoices.pdf & http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/WHO_NMH_VIP_02.1.pdf, page 21)
It mentions: “In india there is a law that in intended to protect the daughter-in-law from abusive in-laws. A daughter in law can go to the police station and lay a complaint that she is being abused by her in-laws, and the in-laws are arrested on her word alone. However the focus group participants reported that some daughters-in-law are using this law as a form of elder abuse,by making false police reports. In general, participants stressed that the lack of caring attitude by daughters-in-law was a major problem. (India)”

US GOVT WARNS

Whenever we talk about NRI marriage fraud, why DON’T WE TALK ABOUT Dowry law misuse? Even the US govt. realized the problem of Dowry law misuse in India and they have also displayed a travel warning on their website, warning US citizens(Persons of Indian Origin) going to India for marrying Indian girls for details pls read: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1139.html)

It mentions: “A number of U.S.-citizen men who have come to India to marry Indian nationals have been arrested and charged with crimes related to dowry extraction. Many of the charges stem from the U.S. citizen’s inability to provide an immigrant visa for his prospective spouse to travel immediately to the United States. The courts sometimes order the U.S. citizen to pay large sums of money to his spouse in exchange for the dismissal of charges. The courts normally confiscate the American’s passport, and he must remain in India until the case has been settled. There are also cases of U.S.-citizen women of Indian descent whose families force them against their will into marriages to Indian nationals.”

Canadian Govt. Warns

Canadian Consular affairs info for Canadian abroad ( http://www.voyage.gc.ca/dest/report-en.asp?country=128000#6 ): Excerpt–> Growing numbers of Canadian citizens have been caught up in marital fraud and dowry abuse in India. Most cases involve Indo-Canadian males who abandon their wives in India after cheating them out of large sums of money. Other cases involve misuse of India’s Dowry Prohibition Act. This law, which was enacted to protect women and makes demanding a dowry a crime, is sometimes used to blackmail men through false allegations of dowry extortion. Individuals facing charges may be forced to remain in India until their cases have been settled or pay off their spouses in exchange for the dismissal of charges. To avoid such problems, you are advised to register your marriage in India along with a joint declaration of gifts exchanged, as well as consider a prenuptial agreement

Girls use it for any reason but genuine (other than Harassment and cruelty, also see signs of impending false 498a), see some of the root causes for this legal terrorism:

Pre marital affair, agreeing to marry groom of parents choice with a plan to dissolve the relation by false case u/s498a, once the girl does it her parents will have to support her and finally cede to her choice of partner.

Ego, high-handedness, vengefulness

Extra marital relationship, money-mindedness

Borderline personality/Bipolar disorder, pregnancy blues/post partum psychosis

Extortion, there have been a lot of cases where wives were extorting money by misusing 498a serially, one marriage after another.

To alienate the husband from his family and his responsibilities towards his old and dependent parents

To acquire husband’s property and extort huge sums of money

To obtain a favorable divorce settlement

To wrest child custody from the husband by leveling false charges of cruelty against him

To dominate the husband and harass his family thereby creating conditions for coercion

Do let me know if you need anymore inputs. You can refer to all the posts in http://at498a.blogspot.com to get an idea about various reports in media about Save Indian Family. For the helpline numbers all over the world pls refer: http://mynation.net (the table towards the bottom of the page)

Our major sites are http://www.saveindianfamily.org , http://www.498a.org , http://mynation.net etc., though we have around 20 websites and 200 blogsites by members(see http://givemejustice.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/idea-of-the-week1-blogs/). Also see http://at498a.blogspot.com/2007/09/sif-awareness-article-for-newsletter-of.html for some more inputs on Save Indian family’s agenda.

Warm Regards,

Gokul, http://gokul.go.to, 9821414336(Mumbai)
Editor - http://www.siftimes.com , Director- http://www.pifngo.info
Protect Indian Family: “For Family Harmony.. Against Legal Terrorism”
In Kerala till 14th May: 9895697372

Gupta ji is an example to young generation.

498a is a biggest source of elder abuse in india and I don’t know and how our stupid law makers will understand.

I am sorry to calling you stupid, law makers, I am helpless.

Ram Balak