The court order, acquitting Deeptanshu of all charges, runs into 70 pages, with many adverse comments on his wife & her family

Highlighting the plight of men in dowry cases, an Indore-based 30-year-old has recently won the case filed against him by his wife under IPC Section 498A (law against cruelty to a woman).

A sessions court acquitted accused Deeptanshu Shukla of all charges in an unusually lengthy order, running into 70 pages, with several adverse comments on his wife and her family.However, more surprisingly, Shukla, who is an IIT (Kanpur) topper, discovered that not only was he harassed, but his entire family was "wilfully disturbed" in a plan involving a senior Congressman, a member of his wife's family.

Days after an FIR was filed against Deeptanshu in November 2012, his father, a senior scientist with the Geological Survey of India (GSI), was transferred from Indore to Bhubaneswar, sans any explanation.

Suddenly, a departmental enquiry was initiated against his mother, a PGT teacher in Economics at a Kendriya Vidyalaya school in Bhopal.

Curious, Deeptanshu filed RTIs in both GSI and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), and found that these actions were requested by senior Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh, Satyvrat Chaturvedi.

Chaturvedi is the cousin of his wife's father, and did these as an act of vendetta by misusing his position and political clout, believes Deeptanshu. In fact, the request letters were written on the Rajya Sabha MP's official letter head, giving his complete profile as Member, Standing Committee on Agriculture; Panel on Official Language etc.

The Congressman angle

Armed with the RTIs, Deeptanshu now seeks justice against the torture meted out to his parents by Chaturvedi.

The Congressman, though, has thoroughly denied these charges. When contacted by Mail Today, he said, "I do not know anyone by the name of Deeptanshu Shukla or his wife, Sunita (name changed). At least in the past six months, I don't remember writing any such letter to Dinsha Patel, Minister of Mines and GSI, or MM Pallam Raju, ex-MHRD Minister. Being a public figure, I often get requests for transfers but I have never done it over personal issues."

Deeptanshu, though, refutes Chaturvedi's claims of not knowing his or his wife's family with copies of their wedding invite. He says Chaturvedi's name was prominently mentioned from his wife's side being an elderly in their family.

The couple got married in February 2011 and in November 2014, Deeptanshu's wife filed an FIR claiming she had been forced to give Rs 15 lakh in dowry. Also, that there was pressure on her for Rs 1 crore more plus some property investments. Deeptanshu fought the case by himself and ultimately proved that there was no such monetary transaction.

Biased police

On May 6, 2016, an Indore Sessions Court acquitted him of all charges. Deeptanshu claims the police also acted in a biased manner.

"On the night of November 14, I was picked up from a private hospital where my mother had undergone a surgery and was in ICU. Then my residence, where my 70 year-old nana and nani (grandparents) were sleeping, was raided without any search warrant. They ransacked everything, from almirahs to cupboards."

Mail Today tried to get in touch with Deeptanshu's wife and her family repeatedly, but the contact numbers made available to us were all out of service.

The couple was married through a matrimonial website. Deepanshu says, "I used to stay abroad mostly. So my parents found her profile online and we didn't do much of a background search.

However, it is only after I was framed under Section 498A that I realized how dangerous such things can be."