Guest Post by AMRITA MUKHOPADHYAY

On Friday, 13 June 2014, a well known Bollywood actress Preity Zinta lodged a criminal complaint against her former boyfriend and business associate Ness Wadia, with the Marine Drive Police Station, Mumbai. In this case, the actress brought about criminal charges against a powerful businessman under different sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The criminal complaint, which forms the basis of the First Information Report (FIR), alleges a range of behaviour that amounts to different crimes under the IPC falling under specific sections categorised as ‘offences affecting the human body’ and offences dealing with ‘criminal intimidation, insult and annoyance’. The first offence of ‘assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty’ under Section 354 of the IPC is a cognizable non-bailable offence liable with imprisonment ranging from one to five years with or without fine. Section 504 of the IPC forms the basis of another offence dealing with breaching ‘public peace’ on account of intentional insult or provocation, is a bailable non-cognizable offence with a maximum punishment of two years in imprisonment with or without fine. Under Section 506 of the IPC, the businessman is accused of criminal intimidation with ‘threat’ that may deal with intention to cause ‘death or grievous hurt’ or ‘destruction of property’ or to ‘impute, unchastity to a woman’. This offence is liable with imprisonment for seven years and is non cognizable and bailable. Finally under Section 509 of the IPC, the businessman stands accused of a cognizable and bailable crime of insulting the ‘modesty’ of a woman based on ‘any word, sound or gesture’ and carries a term of imprisonment for three years with or without a fine.

Ness Wadia dismissed the allegations as ‘false’.

In this maze of criminal charges, the glaring anomaly is the absence of a focus on nature of the relationship between the person who lodged the complaint and against whom the complaint is alleged. Continue reading Harassment or Domestic Violence? The Case of Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia: Amrita Mukhopadhyay →