A 39-year-old man was booked by Nagpada police on Wednesday for giving instant triple talaq to his wife in November last year. This is Mumbai's first case of triple talaq since the central government criminalised the practice two weeks ago.
According to Mid-Day, Nagpada police have booked Sayyed Anwar Ali (39) for giving instant divorce to his wife. He has since been absconding. A resident of Nagpada, the woman married to Ali in 2005. When she moved to her in-laws' home in Ahmednagar, she learnt that Ali was unemployed and financially dependent on his parents. Dejected, she returned to Mumbai and took up a job as a dietician in a reputable firm. The 37-year-old started living in a flat at Nagpada owned by her father.
A police officer told the leading daily that, "Ali, too, came to Mumbai and tried his luck at petty businesses with the money borrowed from his father-in-law. However, he failed miserably. He then started asking his wife for money and would pick up fights with her and abuse her when she refused."
In 2009, the woman gave birth to twin girls. After this, Ali would make frequent trips between Mumbai and Ahmednagar. A few years after their daughters' birth, he took them to Ahmednagar. The police officer further told the Mid-Day, "Later, the woman brought one of her children to Mumbai when she contracted tuberculosis. The relationship between the couple kept deteriorating as Ali continued to live off her and her parents' income."
In November 2018, Ali pronounced Triple Talaq to his wife after an intense argument. After the argument, the woman tried to make peace with her husband, but after failed attempts, she approached Nagpada police and filed a complaint against Ali under the new law on Wednesday evening.
The Nagpada police have registered a case under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, and Section 498 (enticing or taking away or detaining with criminal intent a married woman) of the Indian Penal Code.
The Parliament, on August 1, approved the bill that makes instant triple talaq a criminal offence. Triple Talaq Bill makes the practice of giving instant triple talaq orally a criminal offence with provisions of a jail term of up to three years. The Triple Talaq Bill or Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 which prohibits divorce by pronouncing "talaq" thrice in one occasion by a husband, was recently passed by both Houses of Parliament.