Wife accuses civil judge of domestic violence, dowry

Vadodara: A sitting civil judge and his family members have been accused of domestic violence and

dowry

by his wife seven years after their marriage.

The complainant Himani Pathak lodged a complaint against her husband Ashutosh Pathak, a judicial magistrate in the city, and his family members with the Panigate police station on June 20. She alleged that the judge and his family members were threatening her for going to her parents house in Godhra. She claimed that the torture began a week after they got married in July 2007.

Himani further alleged that she also complained of being thrashed for going to her parents’ house without informing the in-laws.

Himani also alleged that despite her parents gifting ornaments and other valuables in the marriage, her in-laws kept demanding dowry.

Even after the couple had a child in September 2008, the torture continued, she told the police. When Pathak became a judge in 2010 and got posted in Vadodara, Himani’s parents visited her. But she was allegedly not allowed to enter enter the house for a night and the next day they forced her to write an apology letter.