Lord:

A court in Maharashtra’s Thane district acquitted a man and four other members of his family on charges of abusing his wife, noting that the woman was “defiant” and did not support her own views .

Additional Sessions Judge Amit M Shete, in an order passed on April 3, gave presumption of innocence to the accused and held that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them all and therefore required Acquit them without charge.

A copy of the order was provided on Monday.

Those acquitted include the woman’s 34-year-old husband, her parents-in-law, sister-in-law and a military brother-in-law.

They were charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 498-A (cruelty), 313 (causing miscarriage without consent of woman), 406 (breach of trust), 323 (intentionally causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) ), 506 (intentional insult, criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention).

Prosecutors told the court the woman got married on August 3, 2013.

Later, her husband and in-laws started harassing her mentally and physically for household chores, demanding dowry of Rs 4 lakh and various other reasons.

The defendant often starved her and tortured her by beating and threatening her.

The prosecutor said that when the informant (the victim) was pregnant, her husband also beat her on the abdomen, causing her to miscarry.

“The informant refuses to accept and does not support her own version of the matter. The complaint remains unsubstantiated,” the judge said in the order. The court noted that these panchanamas were only used to show the arrest of the accused and nothing else.

Upon careful reading of the medical certificate, the informant did not suffer any external injuries.

“The informant’s medical examination showed no pregnancy. The certificate specifically mentioned that there were no signs of pregnancy. The informant missed MC (menstruation), so she might have had the impression of being pregnant, however, it is very clear in the certificate that there is no doubt that the informant was not Pregnant,” the court said.

The judge said the serious allegation of causing a miscarriage, which was a cognizable offense justiciable by the courts, was therefore untenable.

The court also noted that the woman’s brother-in-law is an army man and is said to be posted in Jammu and Kashmir and hence he remained absent (during the hearing).

“The law is well established that if there is an order of acquittal, it can be applied to an absent defendant,” the court said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)