A 22-year-old woman was burnt to death allegedly by her husband and in-laws in Shravasti district of Uttar Pradesh, NDTV reported on Monday. The incident took place on Friday evening after Sayeeda tried to file a police complaint against her husband for giving her divorce by uttering talaq thrice.
The woman’s father Ramzan Ali Khan claimed that his son-in-law Nafees, who works in Mumbai, gave his daughter talaq over the phone on August 6. Sayeeda went to the police station on the same day.
“The police did not register a case and sent her home telling her to let her husband return from Mumbai,” Khan said in a complaint, according to The Times of India. “When Nafees arrived on August 15, police summoned the couple, talked to them and told Sayeeda to stay with Nafees”.
Khan also alleged that Nafees used to beat his daughter regularly and said the police tried to get the couple to compromise and settle their differences instead of taking legal action.
The couple had heated exchange the next day over Sayeeda’s attempt to file a police complaint.
“Father held my mother by her hair and thrashed her, my aunts Nadira and Gudiya poured kerosene and grandfather Azizullah and grandmother Haseena lit a match,” the couple’s daughter Fatima was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
Nafees and his father have been arrested and investigations in the case are underway.
“We have received a complaint. The body is being sent for post-mortem,” senior police officer BS Dubey said. “They have named eight people in the FIR. We are making efforts to arrest everyone.”
He added that the alleged lapse at the local police station level will be investigated.
However, the police claimed it was a case of dowry death. “So far no talaq angle has emerged,” Superintendent of Police Ashish Srivastava told PTI. “ If it emerges, action will be taken accordingly.”
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019, which made triple talaq a criminal offence was passed in the Rajya Sabha on July 30. President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the bill on August 1, which transformed the bill into a law. Muslim men used to divorce their wives by uttering the word “talaq” thrice in spoken or written forms, or via electronic communication. It prescribes imprisonment of up to three years for the offence, and has a provision for subsistence allowance to the offender’s wife and children.
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