In Brief
In this matrimonial dispute, the wife filed a criminal complaint for dowry-related offences (criminal breach of trust and cruelty) against her estranged husband, mother-in-law, and siblings-in-law more than three years after separation and six years after divorce petition was filed. The Supreme Court upheld the High Court's decision quashing the Section 498A charge (harassment) as time-barred. On criminal breach of trust, the Court held that while it is a continuing offence, the complainant's subsequent submission of additional stridhan items years later lacked credibility. Finding the complaint was a pressure tactic in matrimonial proceedings, the Court quashed the FIR entirely as an abuse of process.
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