Bombay HC tells police to protect 2 sisters

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked the Dahisar police to grant police protection with immediate effect to two sisters — Tejal and Radha — who fear that their parents will kill them if they don’t begin living with the respective men to whom they were married at the age of three. One of the sisters had married another man last February allegedly against her parents’ wishes. The husband was allegedly abducted by two men last month and beaten severely. He succumbed to his injuries a few days later. The police had registered a case related to the abduction-cum-murder of the deceased and arrested four men who are relatives of the sisters.   

A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Anuja Prabhudesai was hearing a criminal writ petition filed by Tejal Gupta, a resident of suburban Dahisar. According to the petition,Tejal and Radha were ‘married off’ at the age of three and their family has been insisting that they should join their respective ‘husbands’.

Tejal claimed that despite opposition from her parents and relatives, she married a man, Brijesh Gupta, in February 2016. On March 23 2017, Gupta was abducted by two persons and badly assaulted. Tejal registered an FIR at Dahisar police station on the same date. However, two days later her husband succumbed to his injuries. Tejal has sought that her sister and her should be provided immediate security as well as transfer of investigation to a police station outside Dahisar. She also sought that her statement should be recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which will be used as evidence when the trial begins.

Additional public prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh informed the court that after the death of Tejal’s husband, four persons — all relatives of the woman — had been arrested by the police under the Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

She further said that that the police is ready to take Tejal’s statement under Section 164 of the CrPC before the magistrate. The court then directed the police to provide immediate protection to the sisters and kept the matter for further hearing on May 2.