The Bandra Family court granted divorce to a woman from her 40-year-old husband on the grounds of his philandering and abusive behaviour. The court also ordered permanent custody of the child to the mother and ‘permanently restrained’ the man from coming within one km near his wife and son. Hearing the case, Judge SD Tulankar ordered, “I have no hesitation in accepting the unchallenged version of the petitioner. The permanent custody of [their son] is kept with the petitioner.”
The case
Haseena Khan (38) had married Priyam Patil (40), a resident of Worli on February 12, 1997 after a courtship that lasted over year. Two years into the marriage, Haseena delivered a son named Ritesh. Priyam worked with his father in a transport business but after his father gave up his partnership in the firm, Priyam was left with no job and that’s when trouble began to brew in paradise.
Haseena said that after he lost his job, they moved to Koparkhairane in Navi Mumbai. It was there that he began to mistreat her by continually demanding money from her. It was only after sometime that she confided in her parents and taking pity of the condition of their daughter’s marriage that they bought the two of them an apartment in Govandi. However, Priyam, citing financial difficulties, forced her to sell it off.
Marriage on rocks
Matters became even worse when he began to squander all their money on dance bars. According to Haseena, in 2003, Priyam began having an affair with a bar dancer by the name of Rubina Sheikh. She said that on one occasion, Rubina’s brother had even called up their home and told her that Rubina was pregnant with Priyam’s child. On hearing this news, Haseena was shocked and decided to confront Priyam about his philandering ways. However, when she discussed this with him, he flew into a fit of anger and viciously beat her up.
Subsequently, Priyam had two more affairs — one with a tattoo artist and was allegedly living in with a third woman. Haseena further claims that Priyam was living off her parents’ money and in December 2010, confronted him once again. However, things took a turn for the worse as he savagely assaulted her and even choked her leading to her hospitalisation. It was only then that a police complaint was filed after which Priyam continually called Haseena and threatened to commit suicide. She later filed for divorce, which was granted to her on May 10.(MD)
(Names of the litigants have been changed to protect identities)
