Father Threatening to Come to Her Office? Legal Steps

One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.

Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.

TL;DR: A 25-year-old adult can live wherever she wants, and police cannot force her back to her parents' home. A missing-person complaint by a parent against an adult who left on her own does not become a criminal case against anyone. But the threats are real and actionable, and so is a falsecase built on the claim that her partner manipulated her. Both can be met with a police complaint, a protection order under the domestic violence law, and, if a false FIR is registered, anticipatory bail and a quashing petition before the High Court.

Ananya Deshpande, 25, moved into a rented flat in Baner, Pune in 2023 and has not slept at her parents' home since. The last time she saw her father, Mahesh Deshpande, was outside a relative's shop in Kothrud, where he hit her in front of people on the street. Her mother has been on the receiving end of the same temper for twenty years. Her brother too, until he moved out.

She works at a Tech Mahindra office in Hinjewadi. In mid-February 2025 the calls started again. Her father wanted the address. She gave him nothing. Then the message changed. He said he would come to the office gate, ask around about her, and wait outside when her shift ended.

She lives with Jaskaran Singh, 27, her partner of two years. Her parents don't know he exists. He is Sikh, she is Hindu, and that gap is exactly why the address has stayed quiet. Early approaches elsewhere went nowhere, with the police treating it as a family matter to be sorted at home. The Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao took it up as a safety and privacy problem instead. A written complaint, a protection application, and a firm representation to the police station changed the tone of the response entirely. Advocate Sudhir Rao's record in criminal matters of this kind helped secure the order in the client's favour.

This is one side of the story. The father has not been heard.

Key Facts of the Case

• The daughter is 25, financially independent, and left the parental home voluntarily in 2023.
• Her father has a history of violence, including a public assault on her.
• She lives in a rented flat in Baner, Pune, with her partner, Jaskaran Singh.
• Her parents do not know about the relationship or the address.
• The couple is in an interfaith relationship, and that is the stated reason for the secrecy.
• In mid-February 2025, the father threatened to appear at her workplace in Hinjewadi and wait outside.
• No missing-person complaint had been filed when the matter was taken up.
• The relief sought was privacy and safety, not money or property.

The Direct Legal Answer

Can her father file a missing person complaint against a 25-year-old adult?

He can walk into a police station and give information. That is his right. What he cannot do is convert it into a criminal case. She is a major, she left of her own will, and she is contactable. Once the police record her statement and see she is safe and living voluntarily, the complaint closes as "traced" or is simply not registered as a cognizable offence. Nothing in the law lets a parent compel an adult child to return home.

Can he file a false criminal case against me?

Anyone can file a false complaint. Registration is not the same as proof. If a case is registered alleging that her partner abducted her, confined her, or forced her to live with him, that case has to survive investigation and then trial. Her own statement, her bank records, her employment records and her therapy notes all cut against it. A false accusation made with intent to cause injury is itself an offence, and that remedy can be pursued after the dust settles.

What are her rights if he shows up at her office?

She can ask building security to refuse him entry. If he waits outside, repeats the visits, or blocks her path, that is where wrongful restraint and stalking come in. She can call the police control room, and she can file a written complaint at the station that has jurisdiction over her workplace.

Advice in Such Cases

Consult with Lawyer: The very basic and important step to start is talk to Lawyer / advocate. You should not hesitate in paying his consultation fee i.e. might be in range of Rs. 10,000 to 50,000 depends case to case. He is helping you in this situation to come out. He is expert in the domain and can help you explain the procedure which you might have never explored. A good lawyer can get the issues resolved much faster than you think.

Put the complaint in writing and get a receipt or a diary number. Verbal requests at a police station leave no trail, and the trail is what protects you if the story is twisted later.

Tell the employer's security desk in advance, in writing, with a photograph if possible. A workplace that has been warned handles an unwelcome visitor very differently from one that has not.

Keep the threats documented. Screenshots with dates, call logs, and the names of anyone who overheard him.

Matters like this turn on procedural and evidentiary detail that general practitioners often miss, and advocates who handle these cases regularly tend to get to a workable outcome faster.

Applicable Sections of Law

Section 351 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita covers criminal intimidation, which is what a threat to appear at someone's workplace and cause trouble amounts to. Section 78 BNS deals with stalking, and it covers repeated attempts to contact a woman against her wishes, including following her. Section 126 BNS covers wrongful restraint if he physically blocks her way.

Section 217 BNS covers giving false information to a public servant with intent to cause that officer to act to someone's injury.

On the protective side, Sections 12 and 18 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 allow an application before the Magistrate and a protection order restraining further violence, harassment, or communication.

Punishment and Penalties

Criminal intimidation under Section 351 BNS carries simple imprisonment up to two years, or a fine, or both. Where the threat is of death or grievous hurt, the punishment rises to imprisonment up to seven years. The offence is bailable as it stands. In practice most States treat it as cognizable, which means the police can register and investigate it without a magistrate's order.

Stalking under Section 78 BNS attracts up to three years and a fine on first conviction, and up to five years and a fine on a repeat. Whether a particular offence can be compounded, and by whom, depends on the offence finally invoked, and several of these are compoundable with the court's permission.

Jurisdiction — Where to File the Case

For the threats and any incident at the workplace, the police station with territorial jurisdiction over the office in Hinjewadi is the right one. If the threatening calls were received at home, or if he is expected at the Baner flat, that station also has jurisdiction. A Zero FIR can be registered at any station and forwarded to the correct one.

The Judicial Magistrate First Class in whose local limits the offence occurred is the trial court. Petitions for quashing an FIR or writ petitions for police inaction go to the High Court. Jurisdiction matters because a complaint filed at the wrong station can sit unattended for weeks.

What if Police Refuse to File FIR?

Refusal happens. So does a station treating a genuine threat as a family quarrel.

• Send the substance of the complaint in writing to the Superintendent of Police under Section 173(4) BNSS, by registered post or email with acknowledgement.
• If that produces nothing, file a private complaint before the Magistrate under Section 175(3) BNSS and ask the court to direct investigation.
• As a last resort, move the High Court under Article 226 for a mandamus to register and investigate the case.
• Keep copies of every submission and the date it was made. Dates are what prove delay by the police.

Rights of the Accused

If a false case is registered against the partner, these protections matter. They are not technicalities; they are the difference between a case and an ordeal.

• Protection against self-incrimination under Article 20(3) of the Constitution.
• Right to be informed of the grounds of arrest and to consult a lawyer of choice under Article 22.
• Production before a Magistrate within 24 hours of arrest.
• Right to a copy of the FIR and, where the person is arrested, to have a relative or friend informed.
• Right to apply for bail at the earliest stage, and to have the bail application heard without delay.

Bail Provisions

Where the offence registered is bailable, bail is a matter of right and is granted at the police station itself. If the offence invoked is non-bailable or the police are likely to arrest, anticipatory bail under Section 482 BNSS is the step to take before any arrest, and it can be sought on the apprehension of arrest itself.

Regular bail after arrest is governed by Sections 480 and 483 BNSS. Typical conditions include joining the investigation, surrendering the passport, not contacting the complainant, and reporting to the station periodically. Bail strategy here begins with the kind of offence alleged, because the gravity of the charge shapes everything that follows.

Quashing of FIR / Case

The High Court's inherent powers under Section 528 BNSS allow an FIR to be quashed where it discloses no offence at all, where the allegations are absurd on their face, or where the proceeding is being used to settle a personal score.

A case built on the claim that an adult woman was "forced" to live with her partner struggles on all three. Her statement, her tenancy agreement, her salary slips and her therapy records together show a woman making her own decisions. Where the parties later settle, quashing can also follow on the strength of a compromise.

Timing matters. An early quashing petition is far cheaper and quicker than defending a trial to its end.

If

If He Turns Up Again — Immediate Steps

The order is useful only if it is used. If her father appears at the office gate or outside the Baner flat, these are the steps in order.

• Do not go out and argue with him. Nothing said on a footpath helps either side.
• Tell the security desk to make an entry in their register with the time. That register is a contemporaneous record and it is hard to dispute later.
• Call 112 or the local station. Ask for the call to be recorded as a fresh complaint, not as a continuation of an old family matter.
• Write a short WhatsApp or email to the investigating officer the same day. A complaint made three weeks later loses half its force.
• Note down who was present. Colleagues, guards, neighbours — names, not descriptions.

If there is a protection order in force, a visit in breach of it is a separate offence and can be reported as such. Keep a certified copy of the order in the flat and one at the office. Photographs of the order are fine for the security desk; a certified copy is what the police will want to see.

What she should not do is move again, change jobs, or stop going to work. That rewards the conduct and, in a later proceeding, makes it harder to argue that her life was stable before.

Does a Missing Person Complaint Against an Adult Make It a Criminal Case?

No, by itself it does not. A missing person entry is an administrative record. It says a person cannot be located. It is not an FIR, it names no accused, and it charges nobody with anything.

The situation changes only if the complaint alleges an offence — that the woman was taken away, detained, or induced to leave against her will. Then the police may register a case under the kidnapping and abduction provisions of the BNS, and the whole question shifts to consent.

Consent is where these cases are usually decided. A woman above eighteen who states before the investigating officer that she left of her own accord and is living of her own accord ordinarily ends the matter at the investigation stage. The officer's job is to record that statement and satisfy himself she is not being held. If she is an adult, safe, and contactable, the case has nothing left to travel on.

That is also why the partner's position matters in the meantime. Until the statement is recorded, he is the person the police will look at. This is where anticipatory bail under Section 482 BNSS and a properly drafted quashing petition under Section 528 BNSS do the real work.

Documents to Keep Ready

• Copy of the missing person complaint or FIR, if one exists. A certified copy can be applied for at the station or the court.
• Rent agreement or lease for the Baner flat, in her name or showing her as an occupant.
• Salary slips, appointment letter, and office ID — proof of independent living.
• Screenshots of the threatening messages, with dates visible, not cropped.
• Call detail records for the period of the threats.
• Medical or therapy records, if she has been treated for the stress. These are relevant and they are protected.
• The protection order, if one has been passed, and the acknowledgement of every police complaint made.
• A one-page chronology — dates down the left, what happened on the right. Magistrates read chronologies; they do not read bundles.

Identity documents and bank statements showing she pays her own bills are not glamorous evidence. In a case about whether an adult woman is independent, they are often decisive.

What This Kind of Case Costs, in Time

A police complaint and a protection application before the Magistrate can move within weeks if the paperwork is clean. A contested protection case takes longer. Bail, where it is needed, is usually a matter of days from the date of filing, though it depends on the court's board and whether the investigating officer has been heard. Quashing petitions are slower — months, not weeks — and the timeline changes from court to court. Family courts and criminal courts in different districts handle these at different speeds, and any lawyer who gives you a firm date is guessing.

On these facts, there may be very little for the father to argue once the daughter's statement is on record. That does not mean the process is quick. It means the substance is on her side, which is a different thing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Facing a similar matter? Speak to a criminal lawyer in Delhi — Advocate Sudhir Rao appears in bail, trial and appellate matters before the Delhi District Courts, the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India.