Nagpur.
Bringing a major twist in the recent case of a daughter-in-law of a reputed Punjabi family alleging dowry and sexual harassment against her in-laws, the woman’s father has approached Sadar police station on Thursday. Earlier the fight took an ugly turn when the inlaws including husband Hardeep Singh Arora, resident of Heritage Apartments in Civil Lines, sent a defamation notice to the girl and claimed Rs 20 lakh against compensation for bringing a bad name to their family.
A week ago the woman in question Sharlyn Kaur (name changed) had dashed similar set of complaints to all the prominent Gurudwara committees of Nagpur. Meanwhile Gurudwara Managing Committee has also called upon both the parties on Sunday in a last ditch resort to pacify the matter.
Now turning the fight from the community level to the legal battle, the girl’s father Lakhwinder Singh Tuli reached Sadar police station on Thursday and submitted a written complaint in this regard.
Sadar police station has however not registered FIR against Hardeep and his family against whom complaint has been made. Talking to Nagpur Today Sadar Police Inspector Manoj Sidam said that such cases are first referred to Women’s Intelligence Department where a lady PSI along with 4-5 policewomen call upon the couple and try to pacify the matter. “Since it is the matter of someone’s married life, this procedure needs to be followed as per rule, before we register any offence in this regard. If things do not work even after this, then we can register an offence upon the given complaint.”
PI Sidam said that the members from both the families including husband and wife would be called in a day or two. “After listening to both the parties we would decide upon our future course of action”, he told Nagpur Today.
When asked about Supreme Court guidelines on registering an offense in the event of any woman approaching police station, Sidam clarified that FIR would be certainly registered if the talks fail to settle the things.
It may be mentioned that Sharlyn who was married to Hardeep last year in July has levelled serious allegations against her husband and inlaws. In her complaint she has narrated her ordeal saying that she was mentally tortured for dowry and also subjected to sexual harassment by her brother in law Sandeep. She said that her husband also took her to Bangkok last April and left her at Mumbai airport after fleeing away with her jewellery and cash.
Talking to Nagpur Today, Sharlyn’s father Lakhwinder Singh Tuli said, “Our daughter has already suffered a lot and now we do not want any discussion in this regard. We only want to register an offence against them (Arora family).”
He further added, “Hardeep’s ill intent was clear from the fact that they had already filed for divorce last March, as they claimed in the media, and on the other hand he took my daughter to Bangkok in April on the pretext of pacifying the matter. Even we have not received any divorce notice except the defamation notice in which they have asked for Rs 20 lakhs as compensation. Isn’t it a dowry?”
He said that Gurudwara Managing Committee has called upon both the families on Sunday but before that we have received this notice. And so we too approached police station, he added.
