Newindpress
Mangalore, Feb 6: A phantom writer, who wrote a series of obnoxious letters to his estranged wife was sent to jail by a city court.
Kochu Shetty of Elinje village in Kinnigoli working as an Engineer in KPTCL got married in 1974. However the marriage failed and the couple got legally separated through a divorce.
Even after the legal separation, Kochu Shetty began playing cruel mental games by sending obnoxious anonymous letters to his ex-wife’s work place in a bank and to her residence.
The hand-written post cards in derogatory language and being defamatory were also read by those who chanced on the letters. Left with no other alternative, the harassed woman filed a criminal case in the court. Shetty during trial denied that he was the phantom author of obnoxious letters.
The estranged wife, who knew her ex-husband’s handwriting requested court’s permission to access Shetty’s hand-written documents in KPTCL. Shetty objecting to the request unsuccessfully moved petitions in higher courts. During the same time Shetty also absented from attending the court proceedings.
The case dragged on for years, but the estranged wife who kept her calm refused to give up. For the first time, the second JMFC entrusted the task of determining the truth to handwriting experts in Bangalore.
Graphology experts in the Forensic department after comparing the handwriting in obnoxious letters and in the file notings jotted down by Shetty, submitted a report declaring that both handwritings were alike.
The Court observed that the accused being an engineer, had intentionally decided to inflict mental agony on his estranged wife by writing obnoxious post cards. JMFC upholding advocate P P Hegde’s arguments that Kochu Shetty deserved no leniency, sentenced him to one-year imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 5,000.
Shetty will serve an additional period of one month if he fails to pay the fine. Dismissing Shettyâs contention that his estranged wife had suffered no loss in the entire issue, JMFC judge Vijay said, loss and pain suffered due to mental cruelty can never be estimated.
An injury inflicted on mind is a heinous crime, bigger than the physical assault,� the Judge stressed.