Hyderabad: So far nearly 100 cases of domestic violence and dowry harassment by NRI’s have been reported in south zone in Hyderabad.
As per the Supreme Court guidelines, counseling of both the parties, their families to begin with and then the couple should be counseled as a first course of action to solve cases pertaining to dowry.
The Police are directed to arrest the husband in the case only if the first course of action does not yield the desired result.
A senior lawyer Mohammed Asif says in such cases NRI husbands leave the country when they are named as accused.
He said, “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”.
Inspector G. Laxmi Madhavi, Women’s Police Station (South Zone), says that these men after being named accused in the case, often visit the police accompanied by their advocates with an intent of divorcing their wives.
She says, “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”.
Inspector G. Madhavi Latha, Women’s Police Station, Central Crime Station, said that several cases are pending against men who had promised to take their wives along with them and instead divorced them.
She said, “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”.