HC quashes FIR against NRI woman accused of abandoning her husband
The HC bench of justice Deepak Gupta observed that even if it be assumed that all the expenses for coaching, training, tickets or expenses required for living in Australia were incurred by the husband, the same do not “prima facie make out a case of cheating, as the amount was spent by a husband on his wife”. An FIR was registered by one Amandeep Singh of Sangrur in March 2020 for cheating and criminal conspiracy against NRI wife, Rajwinder Kaur and her father Gurtej Singh. They got married in 2014 and she went to Australia in 2018.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has quashed a criminal case of cheating against an Australian NRI woman, who after settling there is being accused of abandoning the husband, who allegedly spent nearly ₹30 lakh to send her abroad.
The bench of justice Deepak Gupta observed that even if it be assumed that all the expenses for coaching, training, tickets or expenses required for living in Australia were incurred by the husband, the same do not “prima facie make out a case of cheating, as the amount was spent by a husband on his wife”.
An FIR was registered by one Amandeep Singh of Sangrur in March 2020 for cheating and criminal conspiracy against the wife, Rajwinder Kaur and her father Gurtej Singh. They got married in 2014 and she went to Australia in 2018.
The allegations were that the marriage was arranged with mutual understanding that woman will go abroad after passing IELTS on study basis and husband would follow her thereafter.
The complainant bore all the expenses of coaching, tickets, training etc. besides her living expenses. However, she later stopped talking to him and demanded ₹17 lakh to be deposited as FD in her account. The husband had claimed that he spent ₹30 lakh, but the wife stopped talking to him and, thereafter, her father told the complainant husband that now he had no relation with the girl, the plea claimed.
The petition seeking quashing of FIR was from the father and the woman claiming that the husband did not want to go to Australia and further at the time of marriage itself he had agreed to bear expenses to send her abroad. But he did not give money for her travel, which was funded by her father.
A compromise was also arrived at between the parties in January 2019. But in 2020, the husband chose to file a criminal case without honouring the compromise. The father and the woman had challenged this criminal case in the high court.
The court quashed the FIR observing that the husband had tried to wriggle out of the panchayati compromise to which woman’s father and the husband were signatory. The woman is not even a signatory to the compromise executed between the husband and the woman’s father. Hence, not bound by the terms thereof, it added quashing the FIR. As per the compromise document, woman was not to come back. The husband was to pay her ₹3 lakh more for two months and if he does not go to Australia, he would pay ₹50,000 per month for her expenses. Further, it was agreed that the husband would be bound to go to Australia as per his “own source”.
“…this court is of the considered view that continuation of any proceedings arising out of the FIR will be miscarriage of justice. Even if the contents of the FIR are considered in its entirety, prima facie no case of cheating is made out, particularly in the light of compromise, execution of which has not been denied by the husband,” it added quashing the FIR.