‘Cruelty to wife over her complexion punishable’

‘Cruelty to wife over her complexion punishable’

Saibal.Sen@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:01.07.2020

Cruelty to wife for her dark complexion is a penal offence, punishable under Section 498A of the IPC, Calcutta High Court said in a recent judgment.

The judgment was in a case of alleged marital torture and death of a woman in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district in 1998.

“Causing cruelty to the deceased victim for her black complexion (sic) even after her marriage by the in-laws would definitely attract Section 498A/34 IPC against the in-laws, including the accused husband,” a division bench of justices Sahidullah Munshi and Subhasis Dasgupta remarked in a 31-page order on June 25.

Recounting the woman’s ordeal, additional public prosecutor Arun Kumar Maity said: “Three days into her arranged marriage in October 1997, the woman was made to stay in a cowshed. The high court has made it clear that mental harassment by the husband and in-laws because of her dark complexion is an offence under Section 498A IPC.”

The accused husband, Maziul Miah, and his family had been paid ₹11,000, three silver ornaments and a bicycle, among other things. But the woman was illtreated and even assaulted with acycle chain. She was constantly threatened that her husband would annul their marriage and re-marry.

A trial court had indicated Maziul and his parents for murder and mental torture and sentenced them to life.