Vijayawada: Though the Supreme Court has decriminalised adultery , police say this will change little on the ground level where there are a large number of domestic crimes like murder, abetment to suicide and harassment which are a direct consequence of extramarital affairs.According to the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB), Vijayawada ranks third in bigamy and number one in dowry harassment cases when compared to the other 12 districts in the state. Experts say anger towards promiscuous spouses and a desire for revenge is a common factor that emerges in most cases.Speaking to TOI, deputy director of prosecutions Byra Ramkoteswara Rao said the judgment will now wipe out all existing adultery cases as the Supreme Court verdict makes it clear that adultery is not a crime.“The verdict will definitely impact pending cases. As adultery is not a crime anymore, only the new judgment will be followed. The cases which are already pending in court will come to an end. There will be no punishment for any accused,” Byra Ramkoteswara Rao told TOI.Prosecutors say discharge petitions have already been moved by lawyers citing the SC verdict to acquit their clients and even the courts will be inclined to follow the SC order.Police said adultery cases are less compared to bigamy cases and a majority of them resort to taking law into their own hands rather than taking the legal route.Keeping the trends in mind, police fear that after the SC verdict, there could be a spike in murders, and murder attempts as a consequence of extramarital affairs which are already on the rise. In Krishna and Guntur districts, there have been over twenty instances of people murdering their spouses for allegedly having an extra-marital affair.Also, Ramkoteswara Rao explains that a police officer cannot investigate adultery cases and they will have to be dealt by the magistrate court directly under Section 192 of CrPC. However, bigamy cases witnessed an unprecedented increase of 20.30% in 2017 compared to the previous year across Andhra Pradesh.Vijayawada too has seen its fair share of increase in promiscuity. Bigamy is a cognisable and non-bailable offence when the spouse marries someone while already married to another person.Police suggest that 90% of Section 494 of IPC (bigamy) offences are against men who indulged in extra-marital affairs and secretly married another person.

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