Mumbai woman files complaint against husband’s triple talaq through letter

A 28-year-old woman from Kurla has approached the Vinoba Bhave Nagar police station, alleging that her husband divorced her with ‘instant triple talaq’ which has been banned.

The woman’s husband and four members of his family have been accused under section 498 (A), 377, 406 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). “Last year, during Ramzan, my husband called me and pronounced triple talaq after which I was kicked out of his house. Following this, I received a divorce notice and a letter from him, wherein he had mentioned talaq twice. The police didn’t record the talaq bit as a part of my statement saying it wasn’t necessary,” said the complainant.

She said since the past one year, she had been approaching Malvani police station with her complaint, but the FIR wasn’t registered. Eventually she approached the Vinoba Bhave Nagar police station.

The couple had been married since January, 2016, and the woman has in her statement to the police said she was harassed for dowry by her husband, mother-in-law and sister-in-law. In five months that she was at her in-laws’ place, she said she was sexually assaulted by her husband.

“We had an arranged marriage and after we split, I got to know that my husband was earlier married to someone else,” she said.

“We have received a domestic violence case, but I am not sure whether it is a triple talaq case because I haven’t gone through the FIR,” said a senior official.

Hasina Khan of Bebaak Foundation, one of the petitioners in the triple talaq case, said that earlier when a triple talaq case was reported in Ratnagiri, the accused was charged under domestic violence act. “If the case has been registered under domestic violence act, then the police has followed the Supreme Court order, because as of now triple talaq is invalid. Since the criminalisation clause isn’t in place yet, there are no other provisions under which a man can be booked. It is in line with what we have been demanding,” said Khan.

The SC last year struck down the practice of instant triple talaq where the word ‘talaq’, repeated in one go was considered as divorce. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, which was passed in Lok Sabha during the winter session, criminalises the practice and classifies it as a cognizable and non-bailable offence, with three years’ imprisonment and a fine. However, the bill hasn’t been passed in Rajya Sabha yet.