New Delhi: An Intelligence Bureau(IB) officer has been directed to pay Rs 20,000 compensation and Rs 6,000 as monthly maintenance to his estranged wife who accused him of mentally and physically torturing her in a drunken state.
Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan, while relying on the woman's testimony in a domestic violence case filed by her against her husband, a JI-1 rank officer in the IB, said there are categorical affirmations that he inflicted mental, verbal and emotional cruelty on the victim.
The court said the victim was entitled to invoke the provision of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (PWDV) Act, as her testimony remained "unrebutted and unchallenged" and he is morally and legally obligated to maintain her.
"The applicant is unemployed and is unable to fulfil her the basic household needs. Respondent (husband) is under moral and legal obligation to maintain her and cannot be permitted to run away from his responsibility and complainant is under constant tension and is finding difficult to live and maintain herself," it said.
The court also awarded a compensation of Rs 20,000 to the woman for mental and physical injuries suffered by her at the hands of her husband.
While awarding the amount of maintenance to the woman and her three children, the court noted that her husband was a JI-1 rank officer with Intelligence Bureau and earned a salary of Rs 33,611 per month.
The man did not lead any evidence in his defence, the court noted.
In her complaint, the woman had alleged that she was harassed and tortured by her husband for insufficient dowry and often he would beat her up under the influence of alcohol.
When she gave birth to two daughters, he taunted her and threw her out of the house, it said, adding she returned to her matrimonial house six months later and gave birth to a male child, but his behaviour remained the same.
He left her at her parental house but took away the children from her, the complaint said.
