Wife's security is husband's responsibility: Court

New Delhi, Oct 24: A husband has the responsibility of keeping his wife happy and also ensuring her safety both inside and outside the house, a Delhi court has said while sentencing a man to three years' jail for subjecting his spouse to cruelty.

Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh awarded the jail term to the Delhi-based man for harassing his wife mentally and physically observing that he acted like a "predator" and inflicted cruelty on her on daily basis.

The woman had died due to burn injuries here in 2012 and her husband was arrested later on the basis of her mother's allegations against him.

"A person, who marries a woman and brings her to his home, has a responsibility of not only keeping her happy but also to keep her safe from any danger inside and outside the house. The convict violated that faith and inflicted cruelty upon the deceased by beating her on daily basis.

"The act of the convict thus becomes more serious as the person who had the responsibility of providing safety to the deceased acted like a predator and inflicted cruelty on daily basis. Not only physical cruelty but convict also committed mental cruelty and tortured the deceased endlessly," the court said while awarding the jail term.

The court, however, acquitted the man of the charges of abetment of suicide noting that the incident in which the woman received burn injuries was "more towards an accident rather than suicide".

"I find that the evidence before the court is insufficient to reach at a conclusion that deceased had committed suicide. Thus, accused cannot be convicted for abetting a suicide which has not been proved before the court," the judge said.

According to police, the woman had received burn injuries in May 2012 at her house and was brought to a hospital. She succumbed to her injuries during the treatment.

Her mother had alleged that her son-in-law used to beat and torture her daughter.

On the basis of her complaint, the man was arrested and later in December 2012, charges were framed against him under sections 498A (cruelty by husband or his relatives) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of IPC to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. During the trial, the man had denied all the allegations levelled against him.

PTI