[“My Caged Life” is a new series which is the first attempt of its kind in India to bring the agony of men and their families who underwent arrest and illegal detention in different false criminal cases mostly under Indian dowry laws. All these stories are told to The Male Factor team by these victims and their families. Names are changed in all cases to restrict legal implications.

If you were detained illegally in any criminal case without proper investigation or on any false complaint, please contact us through the “Contact Me” link of this website and tell us your story. This series will be published on every Saturday on this website.

Read all stories under “My Caged Life” – here.]

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Previous

[What happened before – As I have caught my wife in adultery, she occupied my rented flat with her boyfriend. One Friday evening in 2011 when my parents and I were preparing to celebrate my birthday the next day police came to my parental home and caught me like a criminal in the full glare of my neighbors. In the police station, I was made to stay with a drug addict and a thief. Police tortured me in all possible ways on the basis of my wife’s false complaint and even my wife was allowed to join them in questioning me. They used to tie me in a rope with two other criminals and take me to govt. hospital and court.

Police and my wife opposed my bail plea in 498a despite me assuring them full cooperation in the investigation and giving them a list of articles that were still with me. My wife produced a false list to the police and police continued their torture based on the false list. Finally, after seeing all documentary evidence produced by me the honorable court granted me bail. But my wife was not happy.]

We returned from court and that day was the start of a new life for me. A man who has seen jail without committing any crime. A man who had been with a drug addict and a thief and shared a toilet with them. I was running a high risk of contaminating diseases. I did a medical examination of mine and by God’s grace, I was found negative of any such disease.

We started our normal life and I have joined my office. Convincing my office was not easy. Thankfully my manager was aware of such law misuse and he had saved my career.

Next six months were normal for me. My rented flat was near my parents’ house. Every day I used to see my wife and her boyfriend going out. She was having a good life but in spite of that she had filed a petition for maintenance which I opposed and the honorable court had stopped ordering the maintenance in the meantime. I did not realize that action of mine would have pissed them off.
It was an evening in April 2012 when I was returning home late night around 10 pm. I saw someone standing at a distance on a bike. When I came near, I saw her boyfriend. Having stayed in the same locality for years we knew each other by name. He was a person known for his rowdism. As I came closer he called me by my name.

I wanted to avoid him under all circumstances. I was not comfortable seeing him brazenly misusing my family and ruining my relation. But I was restrained by law – a behavior typical of any law abiding and peace loving average Indian citizen. But his call was not to be ignored either.

As I went closer, he said in Bengali–

• Listen, I am fucking your bitch every night and you can’t even do a shit about it. It is not good that you are not paying her maintenance, which is her legitimate right. Next day in the court you will stop this drama and agree to pay maintenance that she is asking. Okay.

It was an order for me. Order from a criminal and I was supposed to agree to that. I was not sure what to do. I was burning with anger and frustration. How dare he could utter those things to me. I felt like punching the bastard in the face and smashing it. But for a peace loving and law abiding citizen, it was too much to think about.

So I answered calmly –

• We will see what the court decides. Ask her to give me a divorce if she wants to stay with you. Why does she want my money and stay with you?
• Oh is it? Okay, then suffer the consequences…

He said it, hit me with something in the chest and then fled the place.

I didn’t realize what happened. But soon I felt extreme pain in my chest and stomach. My dress was flooding in my own blood and I started writhing in pain and started rushing towards my home shouting for help. One kind neighbor who was incidentally passing by gave me a lift on his bike till my home.

We went to the police station that night after first aid. Police registered the FIR and asked me to go to a govt. hospital for a medical report as the FIR needed a medical report to be attached.

We were at a loss on how to come out of this danger in my life. Police was not doing anything on my FIR for months. We went to SP, DSP of police for his arrest and finally on the order from higher officials the local police station took a step to arrest him. But before they could arrest him they called me for a TI parade to identify him.

He has taken exemption on the first day of appearance under medical ground and the date was further shifted. Next time he applied for a bail which we opposed in the court. His bail plea was rejected the final date of his identification came near.

I was hopeful of his arrest now.

I started my normal life and in one evening as I was coming home from the office I saw my wife waiting on the road on someone else’s bike. They were standing at a distance. Since there was no alternate road for me to take, I have crossed the road to avoid facing them. They drove near.

I heard my wife shouted at me-

• This bastard will not budge in. He will go to an identification parade. He doesn’t know what we can do to him.

I was just trying to avoid any altercation and tried to cross them in a hurry. They came near and my wife threw something at me and they sped away.

Everything happened so sudden that I could not understand what happened. But moments after I felt burning feeling all over my face, shoulder, and chest.

I started shouting for help as I fell on the road hoping someone would come to my rescue. I can’t express the unbearable pain and burning feeling I had. Luckily for me, house owner of a nearby house saw this and was quick to respond. He brought bottles of chilled drinking water and ice from his fridge and poured that over my head. Even today I thank that family for their quick response. I got some relief from the burning.

They took me to a nearby hospital where I was admitted. Even after all this, I had difficulty in filing a case against my wife for pouring acid on me. But it was finally registered.

In spite of all these cruelties, the 498a against me was still running and cases against her or her boyfriend were not moving. I failed to understand where was the justice for peace loving and law abiding Indian citizens? I started questioning if matrimonial relations were really sacred? In marriages, on a simple false complaint, a husband can be arrested but police can’t take any action against the adulterous wife or her boyfriend who openly threatens or tries to murder the husband. Probably marrying a girl is the biggest crime an Indian man can commit.

I wonder why is ‘marriage’ called a divine relation in India. Still today I am looking for an answer. If you know, kindly tell me.

~~~ The End ~~~