Wife gambled away by husband. Cops say "its a trivial issue".

Times of India - 27/12/08

Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui

Lucknow: A mother of two young children has gone into hiding after her dissolute husband wagered her in a card game and lost. ‘‘Tumko hum juen mein haar gaye hain (I have lost you in the game of cards),’’ was what Sokendra Kumar, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, told his wife when four men, who had ‘won’ her showed up to collect their booty on December 19. The woman raised an alarm and the neighbours rushed in to prevent the men from dragging her away. ‘‘She told us about the whole thing, but by the time the picture was clear, the four, who had come to take her away, fled,’’ Sharad Malik, a neighbour said. After the din had died down and with the backing of the neighbours, she went to the cops, who told her to buzz off. ‘‘They scolded me saying that I should not bother them on trivial issues. For them it was too small a thing to intervene,’’ the woman said. Vijay Kumar, station officer, Thana Bhawan, confirmed the woman had approached him. ‘‘It was found to be a false allegation and the issue was only limited to a domestic dispute and she went home,’’ he said. Residents of the area said that’s when the woman went into hiding, fearing the men who had beaten her husband in the card game might show up again. ‘‘Some of the neighbours know where she is, but she is too scared to go home fearing that her husband’s friends might kidnap her,’’ said another local resident.