Delhi-based doctor arrested for giving 'triple talaq' to wife in Kalyanpuri

In violation of a law passed in 2019 to protect Muslim women from threat of “triple talaq”, a Delhi-based doctor was arrested at the Bengaluru airport on Sunday, February 12 for pronouncing the now banned words. 

According to the preliminary investigation by the Delhi Police, the 40-year-old who uttered "talaq, talaq, talaq" in one go was scheduled to fly from Bengaluru to the UK.

The police added that an FIR has been made under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019. 

The case, the extra-marital affair and the complaint

The event took place on October 13, 2022, but was only just made public after the man's 36-year-old wife approached police officers in Kalyanpuri, east Delhi.

A Delhi police team arrested the man on February 9 and then placed him under arrest after conducting investigations and using technical surveillance to locate him at the Bengaluru airport.

The woman claimed in her complaint that she first met the defendant in 2018. According to authorities, he had introduced himself to her as a doctor getting ready for an exam for foreign medical graduates.

The pair got married in 2020 and no child was born from this wedlock. A few months after being married, the accused told his wife that he wanted to study for some examination and that he therefore needed to be away from her in a different area of Delhi to do so. The accused moved to East Vinod Nagar in Kalyanpuri within a year of their marriage, and the wife remained at Lajpat Nagar.

The woman decided to confront her husband after noticing changes in his behavior towards her a few days after he moved to his new home, according to the police.

On October 13, the woman made a visit to her husband’s place in Kalyanpuri and found that he was living with another woman thereafter accusing him of being in an extra-marital relationship. When she tried to question him the man physically assualted her and pronounced “triple talaq”, in front of his live-in partner. 

When accused was questioned about his act and why he wanted a divorce from his wife, he responded that he didn't want to live with her.