Hair remover in conditioner, atta spiked with vim

July 24, 2010

While domestic violence cases often reveal ugly brawls and horror stories, a woman from Goregaon has accused her husband of resorting to ingeniously petty means to harass her for dowry over the course of their six-month marriage.


In a petition filed in the family court, the 26-year-old software consultant has alleged that her 28-yearold husband, a manager with an insurance firm, tortured her using elaborate schemes often seen in children's cartoons but rarely in real life. On one occasion, he mixed hair-removal cream in her hair conditioner so that she would go bald. On another, he added dish-washing powder to atta, and forced her to eat rotis made from the dough. And on yet another, he simply poured water on the bed while she was sleeping.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said cracks had started to appear in their relationship almost immediately after their wedding in Orissa earlier this year. "My husband demanded Rs 7 lakh to do up the house, which my parents gave. But after our wedding, he refused to get me to Mumbai from Orissa for several weeks," she told Mumbai Mirror.

"Before the wedding, he said he loved me and showed that he cared. My parents thought that they'd found me a dream match. But once I started living with him in Mumbai, the dream turned into a nightmare."

The woman said her husband soon put forward a demand for another Rs 10 lakh. "He told me to leave the house if I couldn't give the money. Not just him, soon his family , who visited often, started abusing me as well.

They said that I was not good enough because I couldn’t get enough dowry."

With time, she alleged, the verbal abuse transformed into subjecting her to physical and mental agony. 'My husband did everything — from his crazy plans, to pressing a pillow against my nose, to beating me, ' she said.

The woman said her parents came over to try and resolve the matter with her husband but there was no headway. On one occasion, her mother was assaulted by her in-laws while they were arguing about the way forward.

Lawyer Madhuri Sharma said since there was no provision to file for divorce until a year after marriage, they had moved the court under the Domestic Violence Act, demanding compensation of Rs 20 lakh and Rs 34 lakh spent on the wedding and doing up the home . 'We have sought rights to use the matrimonial home and also restrain her husband and his family from entering the premises, which the court has granted. We’ve also demanded she be given her jewellery back from her husband's family," Sharma said. 'But she’s still willing to continue the marriage if things change."