Court orders FIR against in-laws for sending indecent religious SMSs

Delhi Police has been directed by a court here to register an FIR against a man's wife and her family members for allegedly sending "indecent" messages on mobile phone with an intention to insult his religion.

Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Saumya Chauhan ordered the Station House Officer of Jamia Nagar Police Station to lodge a criminal case under relevant provisions against five members of a Delhi-based family.

"On perusal of the complaint and the documents, the court is of the view that SMSs sent by the respondent (wife's family) to the complainant (man) are highly obnoxious and indecent and are deliberately sent to him with an intention to insult his religion.

"Moreover, since the messages have been sent by mobile phone, hence section 66A of the Information Technology Act is also attracted," the magistrate said.

The court also asked the police to file its status report after lodging the FIR and fixed the matter for further hearing on May 13.

The man had approached the court seeking registration of a case against his wife and her family members for allegedly sending him indecent SMSs to "outrage religious feelings of the complainant and the entire community and promoting enmity between two groups".

He had sought registration of FIR against the family for the offences of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting its religion and conspiracy under the IPC.

The man said he had married the woman, belonging to another religion, after she converted to his faith. The woman's family members were against their marriage.

After their marriage, they were happily residing for two years but later on the woman's family conspired to spoil their marital life and started harassing him, the man alleged.

He also said that he had filed a petition in the Delhi High Court to take out his wife from his in-laws' net but the woman gave a statement before the court that she does not want to live with him and the matter was disposed of. Thereafter, he started getting insulting messages from his in-laws, he said.

... contd.

Please read our terms of use before posting comments
TERMS OF USE: The views expressed in comments published on indianexpress.com are those of the comment writer's alone. They do not represent the views or opinions of The Indian Express Group or its staff. Comments are automatically posted live; however, indianexpress.com reserves the right to take it down at any time. We also reserve the right not to publish comments that are abusive, obscene, inflammatory, derogatory or defamatory.