The Adilabad police have arrested a man for declaring the banned instant ‘triple talaq’ to his wife via WhatsApp message.
The accused has been identified as Abdul Ateeq and police have registered a case against him.
According to G Srinivas, Inspector of Women’s Police Station, Adilabad, Ateeq married a girl named Jasmine (28) in 2017.
“They have two daughters. There were some clashes between the wife and husband for two years. In 2023, the wife Jasmine registered a harassment case against her husband Abdul Ateeq. Then she went to Court and filed for maintenance money in the court. The court gave a judgment asking her husband to give 7,200 rupees per month to the wife. However, Abdul Ateeq told Jasmine that he would not give her any money,” the police said.
Jasmine approached the court again, which issued a summon for Ateeq to appear.
“He then texted her ‘talaq’ thrice on WhatsApp. On that, we registered a case against Abdul Ateeq yesterday and we are going to remand him today,” the police added.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019, which the Parliament passed in July 2019, makes the practice of instant divorce through the ‘triple talaq’ among Muslims a punishable offence.
Triple talaq (instant divorce) and talaq-e-mughallazah (irrevocable divorce) are now banned instruments of divorce previously available to Muslims in the country, especially adherents of Hanafi Sunni Islamic schools of jurisprudence.
They have been made punishable with up to three years in jail for the husband. Under the new law, an aggrieved woman is entitled to maintenance for her dependent children.
On August 22, 2017, the Supreme Court deemed instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddah) unconstitutional.
(With inputs from ANI)
