Police register Mumbai's first triple talaq case in Nagpada

Representation picture

The police have registered the city's first case of triple talaq since the central government criminalised the practice two weeks ago. The Nagpada cops, on Wednesday, booked Sayyed Anwar Ali, 39, for giving instant divorce to his wife in November last year. He has since been absconding. A resident of Nagpada, Jasmine (name changed) married Ali in 2005. When she moved to her in-laws' home in Ahmednagar, she learnt that Ali was unemployed and financially dependent on his parents. Dejected, she returned to Mumbai and took up a job as a dietician in a reputable firm. The 37-year-old started living in a flat at Nagpada owned by her father. "Ali, too, came to Mumbai and tried his luck at petty businesses with the money borrowed from his father-in-law. However, he failed miserably. He then started asking his wife for money and would pick up fights with her and abuse her when she refused," said a cop.

Meanwhile, in 2009, Jasmine gave birth to twin girls."Ali would make frequent trips between Mumbai and Ahmednagar. A few years after their daughters' birth, he took them to Ahmednagar," said a police officer from Nagpada police station. "Later, Jamsine brought one of her children to Mumbai when she contracted tuberculosis. The relationship between the couple kept deteriorating as Ali continued to live off her and her parents' income," the cop added. Ali finally pronounced triple talaq to Jasmine following an intense argument in November 2018. However, Jasmine tried to make peace with her husband, the police said. When several attempts failed, Jasmine finally filed a complaint against Ali under the new law on Wednesday evening.

The police then registered a case under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, and Section 498 (enticing or taking away or detaining with criminal intent a married woman) of the Indian Penal Code. The Rajya Sabha passed the triple talaq bill on July 30 and President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent on August 1, making the practice a criminal offence under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019.

'Social reform takes time'

Speaking about why men would defy a law that provides for jail time, Zakia Soman whose Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) was one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court in the triple talaq case, said, "Legal reform is only one part of the larger process of social reform. The latter takes place gradually." The BMMA co-founder added, "There will always be people who try and defy the law and hope they get away with it. For instance we have an anti-dowry law. Yet, we read reports of a women being harassed for dowry. Change takes time and comes after awareness. People will realise that there are consequences for these actions (triple talaq) once they see that action is being taken." She said, "Fear of the punishment is a deterrent, but reform from within is a stronger and more efficacious weapon in completely abolishing instant triple talaq."

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