Abandoned pregnant woman knocks on Karnataka State Human Rights Commission door

Bengaluru: Determined to finally lead a safe and secure life after being subjected to alleged mental and physical harassment by her husband and in-laws, Rabiya (name changed) clings to her two daughters and vows to fight for justice. Her only fault has been not giving birth to a son.

Rabiya, a resident of HBR Layout, had married Sayed Ibrahim Hussain, working as senior project manager in Vasantha Nagar based company DTZ, in 2010. The couple had a love marriage and their first daughter was born in 2011. Soon after Rabiya found herself pregnant again and that was when the trouble began.

After realizing that Rabiya was going to deliver another girl child, her in-laws allegedly hurled abuse at her, called her names and subjected her to harassment from the eighth month of her pregnancy. “My in-laws called me a prostitute and accused me of running a brothel. They also said that the baby I was carrying was not their son’s, while my husband stood there, a mute spectator. A day before the birth of my second daughter, my husband had locked me inside the house and left. As he went, I was crying with  labour pains,” charged Rabiya.

The torture didn’t stop there  for thirty-year-old Rabiya and her three-year-old daughter.  Soon after delivering her second daughter in January, Rabiya was beaten black and blue and thrown out of the house with her daughter. Rabiya, in her complaint to the K G Halli police, has alleged that her in-laws, Umme Shaheeda (mother-in-law) and father-in-law Sayed Fazal Hussain, had purportedly demanded Rs 15 lakh as dowry from her parents. “They also threatened me and forced me to sign on a three-page document, stating that if something happened to me tomorrow, no one else could be held accountable.”

She further alleged that despite paying Rs 15 lakhs dowry, the ill-treatment continued. “My husband’s aunt would abuse me, beat me and spit on my daughter’s face. She told my husband to leave me and marry another girl. After that   my husband abandoned me in June,” lamented Rabiya. With no food to eat or  money to buy provisions,  Rabiya approached the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission on September 25 and submitted a complaint against her husband and in-laws, alleging that her husband had forced her to abort their  third child.

Unaware of her third  pregnancy, Rabiya had got herself admitted to Satya hospital in Kammannahalli complaining of weakness and stomach pain, when she found out that she had conceived for the third time. When she told her husband, he allegedly asked her to abort the child and threatened her with dire consequences if she continued with the pregnancy.

As a result of stress and constant harassment, last month the victim had a miscarriage. Meanwhile, acting on the victim’s complaint filed  in K G Halli police station, on August 30, the police issued an arrest warrant against the vcitim’s husband on September 26. He is currently absconding.