An IIT Kanpur topper, Deeptanshu Shukla, has recently won a false dowry harassment case

An IIT Kanpur topper, Deeptanshu Shukla, has recently won a false dowry harassment case filed by his wife, Pragya Dwivedi, an assistant professor at a private university in Indore.

The couple was married in 2011 through some matrimonial website and in 2012 Pragya Dwivedi filed a case against Shukla stating that the family had already claimed 15 lakhs in dowry, and was harassing them for 1 crore more plus some property.

This came as a shock to Shukla, as he was arrested and kept in custody for some time in November 2012, while his mother was in a private hospital in Bhopal.

Deeptanshu Shukla then decided to fight his own case in the court, researching on dowry and divorce laws and the court judgements all on his own. He managed to do a sting operation on his wife to prove that she was filing a wrongful case. He also proved there were discrepancies in the statements given by Pragya and her parents regarding the persons involved in exchange of the 15 lakh dowry. He also claimed in front of the court that Pragya was unwilling to live with his parents, who were afflicted with ailments at the time, so he had rented a house separately in Indore. However after a while she began to insist on getting a divorce so he tried getting counselling, which apparently did not work.

It is quite evident from this case that the Prohibition of Dowry Act can often be misused by any party in a marriage, be it the woman or man. However with perseverance and a lot of will power, Deeptanshu Shukla was able to resolve this sticky situation for himself. Despite ambiguity regarding how legitimate his position is, he was able to prove himself right.

However another disturbing fact of this case has been the reactions to it on social networking sites such as Reddit, with some misogynistic comments floating around, citing this case as a repercussion to giving women too much freedom or choice.