A 28-year-old Muslim woman from Hyderabad has filed a complaint with the Charminar Women's police station alleging that her husband Mohammed Dastagir, gave her Triple Talaq for not being able to give birth to a son.
Mohammed Dastagir has been booked under Section 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), among others.
According to the victim Mehar Begum, Dastagir and her mother-in-law physically assaulted her multiple times and harassed her demanding a divorce, so that Dastagir could remarry. Mehar and Dastagir got married in 2011.
Speaking to TNM, Mehar says, “After my first child died, they (husband and his family) started torturing me, saying that I will never be able to conceive. Despite the constant harassment, I put up with them. By making some excuse or the other, they wanted to kick me out of the house. They wanted to get rid off me by claiming that I won’t be able to conceive a male child.”
Mehar gave birth to a stillborn male child in 2013. Four years later in 2017, she gave birth to a female child. However, her in-laws kept harassing her, she alleges.
“Unable to put up with their harassment, my husband and I moved to a different house. But my husband too started harassing me. He used to physically assault me asking for a divorce. He said that he was unhappy with me because I couldn’t give birth to a male child.”
As the couple had a troubled marriage, they went to Bharosa counselling centre on September 11, where Dastagir allegedly gave instant Talaq to her orally, which is a criminal offence attracting a jail term of three years under the The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019.
As per the Act, declaration of Talaq-e-biddat through spoken, written, SMS or WhatsApp or any other electronic chat, is illegal. Talaq-e-biddat refers to the pronouncement of talaq three times by a Muslim man in one sitting to his wife, resulting in an instant and irrevocable divorce.
Mehar’s father Mohammed Usman claims that Dastagir said, “Even if I have to face jail term, I wouldn’t stay with Mehar.”
Speaking to TNM, Investigation Officer E Seenu says, “We have initiated the investigation. We are yet to arrest the husband. We need a witness who heard him give the Talaq orally. The victim claims that there were a couple of relatives who were witness to it. We will take their statement and then arrest him.”