Hi Folks, Sharing with you all, how I dealt with the false 498A IPC case put on me and my innocent parents, along with timelines. I have also shared samples/templates made out of my petitions (obviously, totally redacted) along with below timelines, in PDF format.

Take little pains to have them drafted for your cases. Do NOT ask me word versions. Even if you ask, I will NOT give 😉

NOTE: If you become my client, all these samples and templates will be customized for your case requirements.

All credit primarily goes to one Mens’ Rights Organization, named and styled as MyNation Foundation. Hundreds of exceptionally knowledgeable members have spend thousands of hours selflessly just to guide, motivate, support another of their brother from another mother (that is myself) who has been facing a false matrimonial case in India.

Thank you Rudy, for giving us MyNation.net.

NOTE: My DV case is available here. Index of all cases filed against my and my parents is here and my defence/counter attacks.

Detailed Timeline of the case under IPC 498A

On 07-April-2017,

Compliant filed with Women Police Station, Ongole;
Same day FIR is also registered under IPC 498A and u/s 3 and 4 of D.P.Act

On 08-April-2017,

FIR sent to 3rd Additional Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Ongole

On 01-May-2017,

Regular Bail granted by 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Ongole to Parents

On 01-June-2017,

Application filed for Anticipatory Bail with High Court of AP u/s 438 of Cr.P.C

On 18-July-2017,

High Court of AP granted Anticipatory Bail

On 31-October-2017,

Charge sheet filed with 3rd Additional Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Ongole

On 20-September-2018,

First appearance in the Court along with parents. Collected accused copies of all prosecution documents, 1 set per accused person. We were three, we got 3 copies of below documents.

1. Complaint
2. FIR
3. Printed Charge sheet
4. 161 CrPC statements of all witnesses
5. Rough sketch of scene of offence
6. and few more documents/evidences

On 02-April-2019,

Filed Party-in-person petition in 498A IPC case. All three accused (myself, my daddy and my maa) are PIP !!!

Sample Petition below

Sample Affidavit below

Sample Docket below

On 02-April-2019,

Parents filed 205 CrPC petition praying for exemption from personal appearance during this false case proceedings.

Sample Petition below

Sample Affidavit below

Sample Docket below

Authorization under Rule 37 filed in the case proceedings.

Sample Authorization below

No sample form or format is available anywhere on the Internet or High Court of AP website. Hence prepared the template myself. You may copy it. 😉

IMPORTANT ASPECT: If you and your parents wanna go PIP, file separate PIP petitions for each accused and separate Rule 37 authorization. Do NOT file 205 CrPC in such case. During the proceedings, one accused can file absent petition or any other petition for other accused. So PIP+Rule 37 is the combination to utilize. Not 205 CrPC, as 205 CrPC mandates, in the absense of accused, their advocate should represent them. In PIP, there is no advocate at all.

Obviously, I filed another memo, seeking permission to withdraw my 205 CrPC petition filed on behalf of my parents. Now, I am free to file any number of absent petitions for them in Court. I also attach any medical certificate or prescriptions in support of the absent petitions. Magistrate cannot deny them.

On 02-April-2019,

Filed Discharge petition in 498A IPC case for all three accused myself, my daddy and my maa

Sample Petition below

Sample Affidavit below

Sample Docket below

On 22-April-2019, 25-April-2019 and 09-May-2019,

APP sought more time to file Counter to the Discharge petition

On 30-May-2019,

APP finally filed a 1-pager Counter to the Discharge petition

Take time to laugh at it. Contact me to know why APP has filed such worthless Counter and the back story.

On 14-June-2019,

Court allows the absent petitions sent via Registered Post with Acknowledgement due. Interesting !!!

Sample covering letter to be sent to the Superintendent of the Filing Section of the Court where the Case is pending, along with duly filled and stamped absent petitions.

Absent Petition for absence from a Court hearing date is filed under section 317 Cr.P.C. Sample available here.

From July 2019 to December 2019, Magistrate goes on training!!! 6 Months of training…

On 12-February-2020,

Hearing in the Discharge Petition

Hearing in the Discharge Petition happened. This is otherwise called as Hearing Before Charge framing (HBC)

I introduced the genesis of the case and then the discharge petition and swiftly moved onto the 8 grounds, one by one. Magistrate kept interrupting me by way of clarifications. Took around 15 mins to finish. APP was asked if she got anything to say to the 8 grounds (Note: Magistrate noted down 4 grounds only in her notes). As expected, APP denied the grounds as invalid and not applicable at this stage of case. APP amused me with 1-page Counter earlier (scroll up and read above) and now said very funny and weird reasonings to invalidate my grounds.

After this ruckus, Magistrate asked me for Judgments that I cited in the Discharge Petition. I said, all the judgments are reported judgments and are picked from Law reporters. Still Magistrate and APP also insisted that I produce judgments. I said, I will bring them in the next date. Finally, Magistrate said, she is moving the proceeding, For Orders.

I am glad, at last, I will have a Judicial order soon, that I can go against for Revision in Sessions Court u/s 397 Cr.P.C read with 399 Cr.P.C. with an additional prayer to stay the Trail Court proceedings and for this I have 90 Days of time.

On 24-February-2020,

Order in the Discharge Petition was not passed.

On 02-March-2020,

Order in the Discharge Petition was passed. I was absent.

On 12-March-2020,

I got a CA filed via a advocate friend (yes, i made friends with advocates)

Now working on Criminal Revision Petition to file against above dismissal order at Sessions Court, at the earliest, along with PIP petitions at Sessions Court.

On 08-October-2020,

I got the Criminal Revision filed via the advocate friend; Awaiting numbering and subsequent initial hearing

On 10-February-2021,

The Criminal Revision is numbered and notices sent to Respondent. Call on 12 March 2021

On 12-March-2021,

Nothing actually happen on the Bluejeans session. Since Notice to R2 had returned as party not available’, Court allowed serving of Notice to correct/alternative address. If this too fails, next step is to go for Newspaper publication.

On 12-April-2021,

Awaiting hearing…

On 07-August-2022,

Just updating developments…

1. Stopped pursuing the Criminal Revision at Sessions Court, till date. But will proceed with newspaper publication.
2. Initiated a IA (IA 1/2022 on 10/02/2022), in the long-disposed matter of Crl.P. No. 3886/2017 which was filed seeking Anticipatory Bail from AP HC), seeking release of my passport from the custody of Ongole Trial Court, where my newly renewed passport has been locked up from 2017 July… i.e., just over 5 years! Half the time for which the passport was renewed went in Court itself.
   • The SO of criminal section (B Satyanarayana) says, this 2017 file is not here at Amaravathi but may be at Hyderabad for which his office sent a requisition note to Telangana High Court in February itself but surprisingly the staff at TS HC says they never received any such note!! Interesting!
   • Also went to the New Filing section counter asking why my NOC was not reflecting on the Case Status portal. It is revealed that it was never taken up for processing because the person was on leave. My NOC-Vakalatnama was just lying there in a bundle of to-do items, for 4 full weeks!

On 10-October-2022,

Came to know that Requisition Note was sent to TS HC from AP HC but there is no response on my case bundle. More details here.

On 14-October-2022,

Appeared before the Magistrate for Charge-framing circus and Millions Thanks to God, THAT happened.

On 16-November-2022, 07-December-2022 and 12-December-2022,

Business: The Complainant must turn into Prosecution Witness-1 and file her Chief Examination/Evidence Affidavit and serve a copy to me. As I expected this did not happen.

On 13-December-2022,

First Listed Witness LW-1 turned First Prosecution Witness PW-1 and sat for Chief Examination by Assistant Public Prosecutor. Finished the drama on same day.

I cross examined the PW-1, in part and sought adjournment for continuation of Cross on NDOH.

On 19-December-2022 and 20-December-2022,

Nothing happened.

On 21-December-2022 and 22-December-2022,

I cross examined the PW-1, in part on 21-Dec-2021 and sought adjournment for continuation of Cross on NDOH. Finished the Cross examination of PW-1 on 22-Dec-2022.

On 04-January-2023,

APP finished Chief Examination of PW-2 (mother of complainant and LW-3 from Charge sheet).

On 11-January-2023,

Prepared detailed set of Questions (as with PW-1 above in Excel) to ask the PW-2. Asked them in a pre-organized manner so as to hit the key allegations of dowry and counter allegation of bigamy. Got as many favourable as I needed to dismantle the allegations of PW-2. She eventually became a hearsay witness.

On 03-February-2023,

Prepared detailed set of Questions to ask the PW-3 (the Investigating Officer/LW-8). Asked the witness questions beginning from the fundamentals like names of parties and went ahead in a pre-organized manner so as to hit the lapses in the procedural steps in a dowry case. Could ask around 40-45 questions from my prepared set of 100+ questions. 3 documents are marked as exhibits (FIR, Charge sheet and sketch of scene of offence at Hyderabad) but none incriminating me or other accused to the case.

Since there is nothing incriminating accused was brought on record of the Court, the Court may dispense with proceedings under 313 CrPC. Let’s see.

On 16-February-2023,

After facing a loss in the DV case yesterday, today I found out, on the eCourts app of course, that the Criminal Revision filed in 2021 was dismissed. Here is the 1-page Order. Double Whammy for me… on back to back dates.

On 27-March-2023,

Decided to file Written Arguments u/s 314 Cr.P.C. into Court, instead of waiting for APP to argue the case.

On 08-December-2023,

Decided to trim the timeline entries on this page and jump straight to Judgment date.

On 07 Dec 2023,

I and my parents are acquitted from the false 498A IPC case, on merits. Not settled, not quashed. Acquitted on merits. This is a big deal, for me.

On judgment date, I have with me Dr. Parasar Sarvepalli and Rama Krishna garu to support me. The moment came at about 2PM, when we were called into the Court. As usual, we were called last after all litigants and advocates left Court hall. It was a tense 2 mins, when I faintly heard that A1-A3 are found NOT guilty and therefore they are acquitted… We came out of the Court hall and the emotions started to flood the dam/eyes. For out 15 mins, it was a mixed feeling of joy, exhaustion, despair, hope and angst… We regains our balance, finished formalities (signing of bonds u/s 437A CrPC) and left the Court premises, Happy.

My Advocate friends Pokala Venkateswarlu and Bandaru Dhanalakshmi garu helped me with filing the Surety bonds and necessary affidavit and preparing the documents in prescribed fashion. Thanks to them, for their timely help.

LEGAL PROCEDURE TO FILE PETITIONS IN TRIAL COURTS and COMMON PITFALLS TO AVOID:

• One petition per accused to be filed those that are going to defend their cases as Party-in-person. If you file one petition for 3 accused’s party-in-person, some idiots at Court will ask for rule which states that 3 accused can file one petition seeking party-in-person. Be aware of this.
• All petitions (along with it’s affidavit and covering docket sheet) given to Court should be in green-colored Conquest paper, in legal size only.
  • Update: This requirement is no longer valid, as AP HC decided to do-away with conquest/legal paper at all District Courts in the State of AP. Details here.
• Petitions can be submitted in the Court to the Magistrate (via the Court attendant) or filed at the Bench Clerk’s office to Supervisor/Clerk there. Go with first option always.
  • IMPORTANT: Obtain signature of the APP/PP on the petition that is going to be submitted to Court and then submit. Else, petition may be taken in, but then you will have to file a memo with signature from APP/PP. To avoid this double work, find out on what days (Mon-Sat) does the APP/PP of that Court come to Court. Then give a copy to APP/PP for their perusal and get received copy signature on the Original petition that will be submitted to Court.
• For every petition submitted to Court, one copy should be given to PP/APP in Criminal Cases (like 498A IPC etc) and to Prosecution advocate in Civil Cases (like DVC, 125 CrPC etc). This can be in regular white paper, in legal size only.
• Copy of petition to be served on OP advocate/A.PP before providing a copy to Court, preferably. Otherwise, OP Advocate can create ruckus and this can lead to another date.
• Each petition we submit to Court should have Rs.2/- (in Andhra Pradesh) Court Fee stamp on it. Check your Court procedure, where should it be attached. Even check amount of stamps necessary. To be on safer side, many attach more valued stamp than necessary.
• No stamps necessary to stick on replies given by us such as Counter, Written Statements etc
• Ensure the proper sections are cited on the petition’s cause title. There will be objections raised by APP/PP on this technicality itself.
• Ensure verification section is there on your affidavits. And signed.
• If there are a bunch of documents along with the petition, tie them together with a strong thread/tag.
• Use Memos to convey information to Court. I used a memo to convey that I be exempted from Daily hearing for a certain week time due to personal emergencies. Magistrate did consider my memo/request and delayed the NDOH to another date.

The strategy to win in this case is as mentioned here.