Fight against Injustice - Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section - 498a

No eyewitnesses or evidence is required for filing a case under Section 498A of
the IPC, and there is no punishment for filing a false case just to abuse
others. The outcome in such cases is: harassment of entire families by the legal
system at the behest of some abusive wives/daughter-in-laws and at times jail
for no rhyme or reason! Therefore, the abusive wives/daughter-in-laws who file
false cases sleep in peace, without a care in the world.

I am not a young woman but I am, like many other women, a working mother with a
son of a marriageable age who adheres to some professional ethics and has worked
hard to save up enough to put a roof over my family’s head. I am sure all women
my age don’t want to go the way many other mother in laws have over the past 2
decades, had their homes broken, destroyed and taken away by an abusive and lazy
daughter-in-law.

In the 21st century, many such abusive daughter-in-laws will be soon crossing
our ways. And if you fail to submit to their whims and fancies, then they will
not shirk away from using the ultimate weapon of 498A. The will even have you
imprisoned and your family’s reputation and honor destroyed by filing a false
case of rape/domestic violence/dowry harassment. What the heck if you are
innocent? Nobody in the legal system cares. They all want your money. That’s the
message sent out by the lawmakers and the police of the country.

‘Evidence’, ‘Eyewitness’ and ‘Investigative agencies’ seem dwarfed terminologies
making a shallow parody of legal/political/moral fairness in India. Loopholes at
different levels have cleared the path for wives/daughter-in-laws who want to
misuse Section 498A of the IPC.

What’s makes it worse is if the abusive wives/daughter-in-laws have contacts
and are willing to provide everybody a share of the “moolah”. A conscience, some
courage, the passion to stand up for what’s right - nah! These are mothballed
virtues, which have no place in today’s world. That’s the message sent out by
the ill-educated urban women of the 21st century, who did a volte face in the
values of morality, honesty, and decency.

What about the support of your friends and relatives if you are falsely accused
in a 498A case? You may be run over by a vehicle or murdered before hundreds,
but cowardly threads will tie their tongues and festoons for your “in happier
days” photographs. They all will wormhole their way to safety if a 498A has been
filed against you.

I am severely burdened. One more dictum has been thrust on me. My
“progressive” horizon is suddenly bleak.

One may counter that only the wearer knows where the shoe bites. Any sane
person will run for his life from marriage to an educated urban woman of the
21st century rather then let the sword dangle on his head under such
circumstances. But there were hundreds of them who have been programmed from an
early age to respond to a young woman’s tears without a care for the truth.

Today it was some other family, tomorrow it could be one of your sons who
might get taken for a ride by the new-age urban woman who feels that nobody else
but she and her parental family have all the rights. Who will the cowardly turn
to, then, for support, having rendered none themselves?

The lessons then:

Never commit the blasphemy of allowing your son to marry the new-age urban
Indian woman because otherwise you will be running from pillar to post for
justice. It could take more than six years and all your savings. However, the
people with connections (like Chief Minister Hooda and Home Minister Advani)
will always get off with ease.

Please don’t suggest pre- or post-nuptial agreements for my son in these days of
adversity. The members of the NCW may knock me down in a spur of vicious rage
before even I could start thinking about it.

The cumbersome cargo of these spooky thoughts have drooped my confidant gait.
Some mothers might want to scream shame, but what’s the use if you live in India
or if you live abroad and you want your son to marry an urban Indian woman. It’s
all in vain because the Indian legal and political system (controlled by the
corrupt) recognizes no other country's law but expects every other country to
obey its orders.

Society needs to change with the times. The ill-educated urban Indian woman of
the 21st century is even more devious and better equipped to get away with all
kinds of falsehoods (fake tears, fake breasts, fake lips, fake hymens, painted
faces, sugar-coated double-speak talk, natural lies, every ready to display her
wares) than all her predecessors. The unsuspecting male does not realize what
hit him until well after it hits him and his entire family.

Only a united stand will ensure justice for the innocent and result in
punishment for the criminal families who file false 498A cases. There need to be
stronger checks and balances in place to punish such false accusers and their
corrupt helpers.

Will the wives/daughter-in-laws who file false cases with impunity, repeat
that dastardly act again once the legal system starts meting out severe
punishment to the false accusers? Most probably, No.

- A mother whose son is falsely implicated by 498a