Pune Police take 2 years to file charge sheet

A Noida businessman filed a private case in the Pune court, accusing his daughter-in-law and her family members of offering dowry.

Vinod Kaushik (57) filed the case after the police refused to entertain him. Following the court intervention, the police filed a case and submitted a charge sheet against them in the court in December 2011. However, the case is still pending in the court of judicial magistrate (first class) KP Deshpande.

Kaushik had moved an application before a court in Pune in November 2009 accusing his daughter-in-law Madhvika Joshi-Kaushik, her parents and four others under Section 3 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.

Madhvika and Neeraj, both techies, married in Ujjain in January 2008. In July, 2008, Madhvika filed a case of dowry harassment against her husband and in-laws under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (1860) and Domestic Violence Act (2005).

Vinod alleges, “Madhvika, in her complaint, alleged that her parents had given us 16 tolas of gold as dowry. We had never demanded it.”

The charge sheet filed by the Chatuhshrungi police against Madhvika and her family claimed that the articles they gave in the marriage was ‘streedhan’ and not dowry.”

Madhvika said, “I have been implicated in the case. The case is pending. My lawyer is a better person to talk to about this.”