Hyderabad police find it tough to corner NRI husbands

HYDERABAD: The city police is having a hard time dealing with cases of domestic violence and dowry harassment reported by women whose husbands are non-resident Indians (NRIs).  One hundred such cases, the maximum number in the city, have been reported so far this year in the south zone. As per guidelines issued by the Supreme Court, counselling should be the first course of action when dealing with dowry-related cases.

Families of the couple that is in midst of the conflict are supposed to attend counselling sessions first, after which the couple is supposed to be counselled.
The police is supposed to proceed with the arrest of the husband only if this fails to produce the desired results. Mr Mohd Asif, a senior criminal lawyer, said  that when NRI husbands are named as the accused in such cases, they leave the country. 

“As soon as a case is registered, the husband, if at all he is in the city, escapes to his workplace, which is usually in the Middle East. He does not come back for two to three years, or even longer. Until then, his wife is deprived of justice,” he says.  G. Laxmi Madhavi,  Inspector of the Women’s Police Station (South Zone), says that the men often come to the police along with their advocates, intent on divorcing their wives.

“Though it is a strenuous job, we try to unite the couple in order to help the children. But sometimes, during the course of our investigation, the husbands flee abroad. Then we have to ask the complainants to approach the Union ministry of external affairs,” she says.

Ms G. Madhavi Latha,  inspector of the Women’s Police Station, Central Crime Station, said that cases are also pending against men who have travelled abroad for work, promising to arrange for their wives to join them, and have then divorced them. “We are writing to the passport authorities, asking for their passports to be impounded so that they may be brought back to the country to face a trial,” the inspector says.