BBC News (UK): Afghan bride wins 'maintenance'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8294027.stm

Afghan bride wins 'maintenance'
By Moska Najib
BBC News, Delhi

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ordered an army doctor to pay monthly maintenance to an Afghan woman who has accused him of bigamy.

The Delhi court said that Sabra Ahmadzai's case of bigamy against the doctor, Maj Chandrashekhar Pant, was legitimate.

It directed Maj Pant to pay Ms Ahmadzai 8,000 rupees ($169) every month.

Maj Pant has denied marrying Ms Ahmadzai, saying his appearance in a wedding video was fabricated.

Ms Ahmadzai alleges that Maj Pant told her he was already married with two children after their wedding.

The ruling is only an interim order. A full judgement is yet to be delivered.

But a magistrate at the Mahila Court in Delhi, which resolves disputes related to women's issues, said she believed that "a prima facie case of economic abuse falling within the definition of domestic violence as given under [the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act] is made out in favour of the applicant".

The court also confirmed Ms Ahmadzai's association with Maj Pant as a "relationship in nature of marriage".

Maj Pant's lawyer did not respond to phone calls from the BBC. The defence ministry has not commented apart from saying earlier in the year that it would investigate the case.

Ms Ahmadzai's lawyer, Ravindra Garia, said she would pursue the case further.

"We would like the court to pass a similar final order, so she gets compensated for the mental trauma caused by her husband's conduct," he said.

Ms Ahmadzai was working as a Hindi translator in a hospital in Kabul when she says she met Maj Pant.

She said that she decided to marry him after he converted to Islam and after receiving the consent of her family and relatives.

Ms Ahmadzai said they were "together for about 15 days when he was transferred back to India".

"He promised to return with his parents and left. In six months he only called me three times, and in his last call he told me, 'Sabra you are young and you can marry again - I have two kids and a wife from before'," she told the BBC in February.

In Afghanistan marrying a foreigner is still taboo.

The Pioneer (India): Army Major’s Afghan wife continues quest for justice

http://www.dailypioneer.com/207333/Army-Major’s-Afghan-wife-continues-quest-for-justice.html

Army Major’s Afghan wife continues quest for justice
To slap him with criminal case once he is sacked
Abhishek Anshu/R S Markuna New Delhi/Haldwani
Wednesday, October 7, 2009

A city court has brought some cheer to Bibi Sabra Ahmadzai, an Afghan woman who married an Indian Army officer almost three years ago and was later dumped by him, but her quest for justice would end only after his dismissal from service. Talking to The Pioneer, Sabra said she would initiate criminal proceedings against Major Chandra Shekhar Pant after the Army dismisses him.

Reliving the trauma, she said, “Those two years in Afghanistan without my husband by my side were terrible. The conservative society there passed foul comments against me, and it made me more depressed.” But Sabra is happy now that the court has accepted her claim of being Major Pant’s wife and she wants to fight for justice till the end. She added, “It is all about justice. After what my husband did to me, he should be dismissed from Indian Army. I want him punished for his misdeeds.”

A city court had on Monday ordered Major Pant to pay on a monthly basis Rs 5,000 for maintenance and Rs 3,000 as rent to Sabra after she filed a case in April 2009 under the Domestic Violence Act. Sabra had produced their wedding photographs, a CD, nikahnama and the rent agreement of Kabul with Major Pant’s signature on it, in the court to support her claim. The husband, on the other hand, claimed that the “fabricated evidence” were meant to implicate him. But the court accepted Sabra’s claim that she was Major Pant’s legally wedded wife.

Major Pant was posted in 2006 as a doctor with the Indira Gandhi Hospital in Kabul and Sabra also worked there as a translator. Since her family did not agree to their marriage, Major Pant adopted Islam and rechristened himself as Himmat Khan. They married as per Islamic rites on November 10, 2006. After the wedding, Major Pant returned to India with a promise to take her to India soon. But in 2007, he informed Sabra that he was already married and had two children. She said, “I waited two years for him, but he did not return. So I decided in 2008 to come to India.”

In India, Sabra contacted Army officials, the External Affairs Ministry and other Government agencies as well. As Major Pant was posted at an Army Hospital in Pithoragarh, she and her relatives reached there and took up the matter with the Army officials concerned. She also spoke to the local police and her complaint was registered in Pithoragarh. Subsequently, Sabra filed a case in Delhi’s Karkardooma court in April 2009. Her request for prosecution of Major Pant for bigamy is pending with the Union Government.

The Tribune (India): Justice, at last, for deserted Afghan woman

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091007/dplus.htm#2

Justice, at last, for deserted Afghan woman
Give alimony, court orders Army doctor
BD Kashniyal
Pitthoragarh, October 6

Sabra Yusufjai, alias Sabra bibi, a young girl from Afghanistan who came to India seeking justice against her desertion by an Indian Army doctor, ultimately got justice when a Delhi court ordered that the Army doctor is liable to compensate her.

On the petition filed by Sabra, the metropolitan court of Sunaina Sharma at Karkardooma, Delhi, ordered on September 11 that the marriage of the doctor with Sabra had been proved.

He would have to provide Rs 5,000 per month for her maintenance and Rs 3000 per month for rent of an alternative accommodation.

“I am very happy with the court’s judgement which proved me right, but I will continue to fight the case lodged by me at kotwali Pitthoragarh on December 7, 2008, under Section 494 and 495 of the IPC,” said Sabra over telephone from Delhi where she is doing some courses in Hindi.

Sabra, a resident of Kabul, came in contact with Indian Army doctor Chandra Shekhar Pant in 2006 when the doctor was posted there on a medical mission.

After passing her senior secondary examination, Sabra had started working as a translator at the international airport in Kabul.

"I was working as translator at the international airport where the doctor proposed to me on the pretext that he was unmarried. With the consent of my parents, we got married on December 10, 2006,” said Sabra.

She said that after their marriage, they lived in a rented apartment in Kabul before the doctor moved to India following his transfer.

Before leaving Afghanistan, Dr Pant promised to take her to India. Sabra not only produced in court her 'nikahnama' with the doctor but also the rent deal with the landlord there.

Sabra waited for the return of her husband for two years but when he neither returned nor responded to her telephone calls, she came to India looking for him.

“After reaching India, I came to know that he was already married and had two children from his first marriage,” said Sabra.

In search of him, Sabra reached Pitthoragarh in Uttarakhand where the doctor was posted in the army hospital in December 2008.

“First, I went to his residence and asked him to accept me. But when he asked me to get out, I lodged an application at the police station in Pitthoragarh as well as with the SDM, Pitthoragarh, for justice,” said Sabra.

The civil society in Pitthoragarh took the case of Sabra in their hands and helped her lodge the case.

“If the court has agreed on Sabra’s contention and accepted that she had married the doctor, then the Army should act against the doctor,” said Govind Kafaliya, a social activists who helped Sabra with her case.

The Army doctor denied his marriage before the court and contended that the photographs, marriage video and 'nikahnama' had been doctored.

The doctor also contended that, as the applicant was a foreign citizen, the court cannot initiate any trial in India without seeking the sanction of the central government according to Section 188 CrPC.

The doctor also alleged that Sabra never had a relationship with him therefore she did not fall within the definition of aggrieved person under the Act.

The court said that after careful perusal of the provisions of the Act, the court felt that there was no bar for a foreigner to approach the court for the seeking relief under the Act.

“I had faith in the Indian judiciary and that has been proved,” said Sabra who thanked the Indian judiciary, media and social activists who helped her pursue the case.

Times of India (India): Major told to pay Afghan 'wife' Rs 8K every month

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/delhi/Major-told-to-pay-Afghan-wife-Rs-8K-every-month/articleshow/5091605.cms

Major told to pay Afghan 'wife' Rs 8K every month
Smriti Singh , TNN
6 October 2009, 05:25am IST

NEW DELHI: The story of 20-year-old Bibi Sabera, an Afghan national, has taken a crucial turn with a trial court directing her alleged husband
Major Chandra Shekhar Pant to pay her a monthly maintenance. Sabera came to India to claim status of `legitimate wife' after she was allegedly dumped by Pant, who married her in Kabul according to Islamic rites.

While Sabera's plea seeking prosecution of Pant for bigamy is pending with the central government, the trial court's observation came after it found the incident to be a "prima facie case of economic abuse falling within the definition domestic violence''.

Awarding her an interim maintenance of Rs 8,000 per month, metropolitan magistrate Sunena Sharma trashed the arguments of Major Pant that Sabera was trying to falsely implicate him in the case and that he never married her. He claimed the photographs and other evidence place on record by Sabera's counsel Ravindra S Garia were fabricated and that his colleagues in the hospital knew he was already married.

Not convinced with Pant's contention, MM Sharma said: "It seems highly improbable that the applicant who has come from Afghanistan just to seek her status as a wife from the respondent, would have come with a false plea.'' The court relied on the nikahnama and the rent agreement executed in Kabul and placed on record by Sabera at the court. Both bore Pant's signature.

During the arguments when Pant's counsel contended the provisions of domestic violence act are not applicable to a foreign national, the court replied "there is no bar under the act for a foreign national to approach the court seeking relief if she proves herself to be in a domestic relationship''.

According to Sabera, she worked with the Indian mission in Kabul as a translator for Major Pant in 2006. She said the doctor had converted to Islam to marry her and changed his name to Himmat Khan but did not reveal his actual marital status.