Police in Hyderabad arrested a man for sending a postcard with “triple talaq” to divorce his new wife, even as he was still legally married to his first wife.
The 38-year-old man, Mohammed Haneef, has been charged with ‘harassing’ and cheating his wife, as per a report by Uma Sudhir in NDTV.
Problems reportedly started immediately after marriage with the man accusing his 26-year-old wife, Farheed, of insulting him just a day after the wedding on 9 March. After they reportedly got into a fight, the man drank mosquito repellant and was taken to hospital.
The man mailed the "triple talaq" postcard to his address on the eighth day of their marriage.
Farheed, who is a resident of Old City, lodged a police complaint on 30 March. A day later, they arrested him and booked a case under Sections 498, 420 and 417 of IPC. He has been sent to judicial custody for 14 days, according to B Ramesh, Sub-Inspector of Bhavani Nagar police station.
DCP South Zone V Satyanarayana is personally investigating the case.
In March this year, two Muslim women from Hyderabad’s Old City area approached the High Court over receiving a ‘Triple Talaq’ from their husbands, through WhatsApp.
According to reports, one of the petitioners complained that she was constantly harassed by her husband and her in-laws.
The other, who has two children from the marriage, alleged that she was harassed after her second child also turned out to be a girl.
Asking the court to declare the 'divorces' illegal and arbitrary, they also asked the HC to issue directions to the authorities concerned, to frame rules and guidelines to spell out the ways in which a 'Triple Talaq' would be valid and when it wouldn't.
Triple talaq allows a Muslim man to divorce his wife instantly just by saying ‘talaq’ three times.
The contentious issue of triple talaq has invited several comments with even the PM saying in October last year that he favoured discontinuation of ‘triple talaq’.
Addressing a gathering in Bundelkhand, the Prime Minister said it was for this reason that his government has told the Supreme Court that inequality cannot be allowed in the name of religion.
Modi also said that justice demands that the government works as per the Constitution and provides gender justice for everyone.
In December 2016, the Allahabad High Court had stated that ‘triple talaq’ was unconstitutional. A high court bench said the concept violated human rights and that personal law of any community cannot be placed above the Constitution.
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