Offences Against Women and Children
For Section 85, "cruelty" means: (a) wilful conduct likely to drive the woman to suicide, or to cause grave injury/danger to her life, limb, or (mental/physical) health; or (b) harassment aimed at coercing her (or her relatives) to meet an unlawful property/security demand, or arising from failure to meet such a demand.
This precisely defines "cruelty" for domestic-cruelty prosecutions to cover two distinct categories: conduct genuinely dangerous to the woman's life or health (including psychologically driving her toward suicide), and harassment specifically tied to unlawful demands (like additional dowry) - both physical/psychological abuse and dowry-harassment fall within its scope.
Persistent harassment of a wife to extract additional money or property from her family after marriage - separate from any physical violence - meets this section's definition of "cruelty" through its second category covering unlawful property demands.