Guntur police booked 15 members in the family under Dowry Harassment, including four minors and 3 senior citizens. In the booked 4 minors, 2 are 11 years old boys while rest 2 are girls aged 9 and 6 years.
The complaint of dowry harassment filed on 27 year old Ponnakanti Adarana Kumar and his family by Adarana Kumar’s wife in the last week of Sep 2019, and police in hurry without doing primary inquiry booked the minors with the charges.
The step of Guntur police is shocking that, there are separate procedure to deal with “children in conflict with law”, which essentially comes under Juvenile Justice Act.
From an article by economist, it has represented the minimum age of criminal responsibility world-wide.
The husband Adarana Kumar moved to High Court of Andhra Paresh for quashing of the FIR, which is pending at the bench of Honourable Justice Sri M.Seetharama Murti.
The Times of India reported that, the complainint wife Ponnakanti Bindu alleged that, she was harassed by sister-in-laws and children and even she was not allowed to speak to her parents. she also alleged that 3 lakh rupees, 6 grams gold and cash for furniture given by her parents to the husband.
Activist for Mens Rights said that, “either police take such step under influence of wife or lacking knowledge of law, but one thing is very clear that men and children are the ultimate sufferer in family dispute”