Social Ostracism of 498a Women and Their Families

February 16, 2008 at 2:11 am (498a, 498A abuse, 498a judgments, Abandoned Indian brides, Adultery, Arrest, Corruption In India, Council For Social Research, Divorce, Domestic Violence, Dowry, Feminism, Girija Vyas, Human Rights, incest, Indian Law, Indian Penal Code 498a, Indian Police, Pooja Chauhan, Pooja Chauhan news, prostitute, Renuka Chaudary, Renuka Chaudhary, Uncategorized)

Section 498a of Indian Penal Code has become the consummate embodiment of gross human rights violation, blackmail, extortion and corruption. What makes this section particularly amenable to all of the above is that it assumes the accused to be guilty until proven innocent. “Guilty until proven innocent” may appear on the surface to be not such a big deal, but it is the root cause of the intense corruption surrounding this section.  Enough analysis has been done on the abuses perpetrated under this section. The final nail in the portrayal of this abuse was driven when the apex court of our country, the Supreme Court, termed the abuse of Sec 498a as “Legal Terrorism”. Now, Section 498a has become synonymous with the term Legal Terrorism. 

However, not enough has been written about the perpetrators of this abuse and how civil society must deal with them. Although, you hear an occasional news article condemning the abuse, in most cases, the media has been selectively biased in reporting the truth about these abuses or the abusers. Journalistic ranks have been infiltrated by the radical feminist elements. They regurgitate the same platitudes, occasionally recycling the same old tired stories of victimhood of women in our society, to justify the continuance of such illegitimate legislation in our legal regime. Rarely do you see anyone questioning the motives or background of the abusers.

Now that we have enough number of cases in the public domain, can we use this evidence to draw some generic conclusions about these blackmailers? Who are these women who file 498a? What are their backgrounds? What is overarching truth about these abusers? How should the society deal with them? These are the questions that need some thinking and reflection. 

There are just two main classes into which most of these filers of 498a can be fitted into. 

• Adultery/Incest Category
• Extortion of money Category

 Adultery and Incest

Anecdotally, behind most 498a cases is a story of adultery or incest.  In almost all cases, the instigator for filing a 498a case is a male member, who is in some way, related to the woman filing 498a. 

Surprisingly, in majority of the cases, the male happens to be the husband of the sister of the woman (ie. the brother-in-law). If one digs deeper, there is a story of brother-in-law abusing his position to entice the gullible sister-in-law into a destructive and dependent relationship. When the wife’s sister gets married, the intensely jealous brother-in-law refuses to let go of her, often instigating her to blow up small differences into major family problems. At the right time, he connives with the rest of the family and instigates them to file a false 498a case, thus breaking her marriage and destroying the future of everyone concerned. In some extreme cases, the brother-in-law even fathered an illegitimate child. When the paternity fraud is discovered, they took shelter in a false 498a.

In yet other cases, as outrageous as it is, it is the brother, the father or a cousin that has incestuous relationship with the girl, who instigates the filing of 498a. The remaining cases involve an ex-boyfriend re-entering her life, resulting in adulterous rendezvous that invariably become exposed. When the adultery is exposed, 498a offers the only shield that can be wielded against her hapless husband at the tax-payers expense.

Extortion of money

Under this category, the women filing 498a are those who were never interested in matrimony. For these women, 498a is the get-rich-quick scheme of choice. They actively scout around in the matrimonial sites for their next bakra, preferably an NRI, induce him into matrimony and file a 498a within a few months of marriage. There are recorded cases of women repeating this trick three to four times and becoming instant millionaires in the process, finally marrying their boy friends and living happily ever after, while their hapless husbands continue fighting the corrupt criminal justice system of India.

Social Ostracism

So what can be done by the civil society to deal with these criminal families? Social Ostracism is the answer. 

498a legislation is essentially illegitimate and anti-social. However, the Government which is controlled by the radical feminist elements refuses to acknowledge the abuse of the system in the face of mountains of supporting evidence. Most media in India is corrupt and shows little regard for the societal suffering or injustice. Judiciary and police are either brainwashed or conditioned by means of tax-payer funded sensitization programs to wear blinkers that ignore the evil perpetrated by the feminine gender. All the so called “equality demanding feminists” refuse to acknowledge that equality implies women are as capable of evil as are men. If a man can commit murder, so can a woman and many women do. If a man can lie, so can a woman and many women do.

It was heartening to note in the recent Pooja Chauhan episode, where a deranged prostitute who filed a false 498a against her in-laws and paraded her naked body on the streets demanding arrest of her in-laws, the community elders rose to the defense of the accused. This should provide the model for combating the menace of 498a in every corner of India.

In every case of marital breakdown, the first question the society should ask is – has the woman’s family filed a 498a case? If the answer is yes, then close attention to that woman and her family must be paid by all the responsible members of the society. Sooner or later, the full story of incest, adultery or blackmail would become evident and then become public knowledge.

Conclusion

Next time, you find an alliance of a divorced woman, find out from whatever records you find, if the woman filed a 498a case. Let everyone at work, family and neighborhood know the truth about the filers of 498a cases. Time will not be far off when 498a becomes not only synonymous with Legal Terrorism, but also with Adultery, Incest and Blackmail.