11 July,2011 06:46 AM IST | | Kaumudi Gurjar
Husband arrested after woman constable complains of physical and mental torture at home; police on lookout for absconding mother-in-law and two men from family
A woman constable attached with the city police has filed a complaint against her husband, mother-in-law and two other male relatives for harassing her for dowry and pestering her to leave her job. The police arrested her
34-year-old husband, a resident of Yerawada who works in a private company, for domestic violence and sexual harassment. The constable's mother-in-law and her husband's two maternal uncles, Baba Sheikh and Hussein Sheikh, are absconding.
According to the complainant, she got married in March 2008. According to her relatives, they had made wedding jewellery weighing 250 grams and also helped the couple build a separate house. According to her relatives, they had informed her in-laws about the nature of her job and they had showed readiness for the proposal. Despite this, they said her husband, his mother-in-law (names withheld to protect victim's identity) and his two maternal uncles continued to harass her, demanding she leave her job.
According to the complainant, the physical and mental torture by her husband extended to his making demands for unnatural acts after watching porn movies on the PC. According to the constable, her husband and his relatives harassed her and told her to leave her job to look after the household, and they even kept casting aspersions on her every time someone would call her. The constable said the physical torture had ever since her marriage in 2008.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the constable's relatives told MiD DAY that her in-laws and her husband used to beat her up even when her baby boy was still young. But throughout these years, the constable hid the truth from her parents, thinking that these things would disturb them.
The constable told MiD DAY that she decided not to register a complaint in the past as she had hope that there would be a change in her husband's behaviour. But after a period, she received a notice from him demanding separation. According to the constable, she decided to lodge a complaint after she realised that there was no chance of things getting better.
After she lodged the complaint on Saturday evening, the Yerawada police arrested her husband on the same day. He was produced in court and remanded in police custody for a day. Sub-Inspector Pushpalata Mali is investigating the case. Despite several attempts to contact Mali, she remained unavailable for comment.
Reports of rape during Palkhi false: Top cop
A few days ago, there were unconfirmed reports that a woman constable was raped during the Palkhi in the city recently. The reports even suggested that the constable was admitted to Sassoon Hospital after she was sexually abused. But Sassoon Hospital authorities denied that such a case had been brought before them. When MiD DAY contacted Commissioner of Police Meeran Chaddha Borwankar to verify the reports, she said, "The Palkhi rumour was totally false. The current Yerawada case is against a constable's husband and she has filed the same."
