In a first of its kind case in Coimbatore, the city police have booked a 26-year-old Muslim man and his six relatives, after he allegedly gave instant triple talaq to his 24-year-old wife. In addition to booking him under the The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, the police have also filed a case of cruelty against him.
According to investigating officials, Mohammed Ali got married on July 4 this year. On the very day of their wedding Ali allegedly harassed his wife over dowry. While the groom's family had asked for 80 sovereigns of gold, the woman’s family could only manage 40.
"He demanded that she bring the rest of the gold, and when she expressed her inability to, he and his family were cruel to her," says the investigating official, "They verbally abused her and treated her badly in the house. The husband also refused to be intimate with her.”
Three days after the wedding, when Ali and his wife went to Aluva in Kerala for their honeymoon, he allegedly showed her the picture of another woman and said that he was interested in marrying her. When his wife protested this, he countered her by chanting 'Talaq' thrice.
The practice, popularly called 'instant triple talaq', allows a Muslim man to legally divorce his wife by pronouncing talaq (the Arabic word for divorce) three times. However in 2019, the union government passed a law banning instant triple talaq. The law makes the practice illegal and void, with up to three years in jail for the husband.
Despite what the husband said, the two families attempted to get them to reconcile. However in September, Ali allegedly sent his wife a notice claiming that he divorced her because she asked him to.
"So now we have filed an FIR against Ali, his two sisters, a brother, brother-in-law, uncle and aunt for triple talaq and cruelty," says the police official.
While Ali has been booked under Sections 3 (Any pronouncement of talaq by a Muslim husband upon his wife, by words, either spoken or written or in electronic form or in any other manner whatsoever, shall be void and illegal) read with 4 (Any Muslim husband who pronounces talaq referred to in Section 3 upon his wife shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to fine) of the 2019 act, his relatives have been booked under section 498A (Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty).
This is the second such case to be registered in Tamil Nadu, the first being in Pudukkottai.
"We had to get legal opinion and speak to other police officers in order to invoke the right sections," says the officer, "As the investigation continues, we will look into slapping dowry harassment charges as well.