Man held for assaulting wife after she asked him to wear a mask

According to the police, the incident took place around 7am when the victim, identified as Anita, was at her house. The police said her husband runs a local eatery in Farrukhnagar.

A man was arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife after she tried to stop him from going to work during the lockdown and asking him to wear a mask in Jamalpur, Farrukhnagar, on Friday.

“The man was arrested on Friday and released on bail. We are verifying the allegations that he had violated the lockdown orders,” said a police officer. (HT Archives. Representative image)

According to the police, the incident took place around 7am when the victim, identified as Anita, was at her house. The police said her husband runs a local eatery in Farrukhnagar.

A police officer privy to the investigation, requesting anonymity, said that the woman told them that her husband had refused to close down his eatery during the lockdown and had been serving alcohol illegally.

In the FIR, she said that she had been scared about the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and had repeatedly pleaded with her husband to wear a mask. “He refused to wear a mask and said that the virus would not spread in the area. When I told him to wear a mask, he rebuked me and hurled abuses. On Thursday night and Friday morning, he and my mother-in-law assaulted me with a belt after an argument over wearing the mask and shutting down his shop,” she said.

The police said the woman alleged that her husband, Rajbir, kicked her out of the house and threatened to kill her, following which she filed a police complaint.

“The man was arrested on Friday and released on bail. We are verifying the allegations that he had violated the lockdown orders,” said a police officer.

A case was registered against the man under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code at Farrukhnagar police station on Friday, the police said.