A case of harassment was registered by Thane police against a 39-year-old Muslim doctor following a complaint by his ex-Hindu wife who converted to Islam before marrying, IndiaTV has reported.
The complainant, also a doctor, lodged her complaint in Thane’s Kapurbawdi police station on Friday. The 37-year-old victim alleged that her husband & in-laws harassed her for money and other issues, and also forced her & their 2 children to live along with a second wife that he married.
The complainant and the accused fell in love while working together at a clinic in Mumbai. “The victim, who was a Hindu, got converted to Islam and married him in November 2005,” police said.
“However, immediately after their marriage, her husband and in-laws started harassing her. They made her contest civic elections although she was pregnant. But she lost the polls,” they said.
Her husband constantly criticised her saying she could not cook well. The accused then married another woman and forced the victim to live together along with her two children, police added.
In the complaint, the woman said since she was unable to bear the torture and fulfil his monetary demands any longer, she approached the police.
The accused was booked under sections 498 A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 494 (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) and others, police said adding that no arrest was made in the case so far.
HinduPost Note
This incident again demonstrates how even educated Hindus are often completely clueless about Muslim personal laws and the issues that inevitably rise with such marriages once the glow of romance wears off.
As the victim converted to Islam before marriage, it is reasonable to assume that they married under sharia law. A Muslim man is entitled to keep 4 wives under Muslim personal law, so unless the couple married under Special Marriage Act, it is not clear how IPC 494 (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) is applicable in this case. Gujarat High Court has held that a Muslim cannot be prosecuted be prosecuted for Bigamy [S.494 IPC]. In March this year, a Pune court sentenced a Muslim man to 2-years imprisonment for bigamy, but only because he had married his first wife under the Special Marriage Act as well as Islamic laws and rituals.
Spreading social & legal awareness on these politically incorrect matters is of vital importance to safeguard to right of Hindus who are usually at a disadvantage if such inter-religious marriages turn sour.
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