Mumbai: Man booked for phone talaq under new law in Mumbra

Muslim women celebrate the passage of a law to outlaw Triple Talaq or "instant divorce" in New Delhi on Wednesday. Pic/AFP

Barely two days after the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha, a case in this regard was registered at the Mumbra police station on Friday. No arrests have been made yet. The triple talaq bill is applicable with retrospective effect from September 19, 2018. The 31-year-old victim's husband, she claimed, pronounced talaq over a phone call and also through WhatsApp messages in November 2018. The cops have booked her husband and her in-laws under sections 498 A (cruelty by husband), 406 (breach of trust), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and section 4 of The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act.

The complainant, an MBA graduate, got married to Imtiyaz Patel in September 2015. "My husband works as a sales executive in an Abu Dhabi-based company. After our marriage, he demanded '54,000 from me to buy a bike. In October 2015, he left for Abu Dhabi," the woman told the police. "My mother-in-law and sister-in-law wouldn't behave well with me. In October 2016, my husband returned to India and took me to my parents' place. He asked me to stay there for a while and left for Abu Dhabi again," she narrated.

When Patel came back in August 2017, he started living with the complainant at her parents' place and once again asked for money to buy a bike. "I borrowed a loan of around '84,000. In September 2017, I got to know of his extra-marital affair. When I confronted him, he beat me up. He also asked me to handover my jewellery to him but I refused as it was my mother's gift to me," her statement read.

Phone talaq

He called her on November 30 last year and declared talaq, a police officer said. "He pronounced talaq thrice and once again did so over WhatsApp. "Talaq de raha hu mai tere ko. [I am divorcing you] Talaq, Talaq, Talaq," he messaged. The complainant was seven-months pregnant at the time and delivered a boy in February 2019. However, since the triple talaq law or the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights On Marriage) Act, 2019, has come into effect retrospectively from September 19, 2018, a case was registered this month. "We have registered the case against her husband under the new law and are investigating the case," MS Kad, senior inspector, Mumbra told mid-day.

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