Poorva Chavan
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Written By: Poorva Chavan | Updated : March 18, 2016 4:28 PM IST
Veena Theresa is a single mother with three minor daughters and has written a petition to HRD Minister Smriti Irani to help her and her children live peacefully. The petition submitted on Change.org says that Veena has been living alone with her three minor daughters since April 2012. She mentions in the petition that she has been harassed by her husband and her in-laws for not giving birth to a male child and has also been threatened many times. She was tortured physically and mentally from the time she was expecting her first child. The petition also says that one of her daughters was sexually abused by her father-in-law when she was an infant.
She ran away to Bengaluru from her matrimonial home with her daughters in April 2012 when she was chased with a knife. On moving to Bengaluru, she filed an FIR against her husband Paul Rajan, who was summoned to the court in July 2012. Following the FIR, she has been threatened and harassed to withdraw the charge sheet. She claims that not just her husband but political heads, religious heads, police commissioners have been asking her to withdraw the charge sheet. When she refused to withdraw it, her husband legally tried to take the custody of kids from her by filing for custody in the Kerala Family Court.
He has harassed them by sending police to their house at odd hours, creating scenes in their house and her children's school. He has also tried to get them arrested for contempt of court. They were detained at the police station where they were harassed with derogatory comments and threats. She even says that they were groped by policemen and were only let go when one of her daughters started recording everything on camera.
It was when she raised an SOS on Facebook, that the media came to know about it, and they were shielded from further harassment.
However her husband already had the ex-party custody of their children, and she along with the daughter was summoned by the Court in Kerala. The kids narrated the harassment to the Judge, and that is when the Judge issued an order stating the kids did not want to stay with the father.
The husband has again started harassing them and has presented a Family Court order which says that the children's custody be given to him on the 23rd and 24th of March 2016. The kids are currently appearing for their final exams.
Veena has made it very clear that she is raising her daughters all by herself and is not dependent on her husband for anything.
All she wants is to live peacefully without this mental torture and harassment from her husband. She has also said that she is willing to let her kids meet their father if they state in public or court that they want to meet him.
Harassing a woman for giving birth to a girl child is not new in this country. And troubling a single woman who is just trying to make ends meet and give her three daughters a dignified life is nothing but cruel and highlights the condition of women in the society.
If you strongly feel that Veena and her children need justice, and her husband should not be allowed to trouble them again, sign the petition here. All you have to do is fill in your details like your name and email Id and hit submit.
Image source--Change.org
