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‘Marriage ended in 10 days’: IIM graduate alleges extortion by ex sister-in-law
Challa, an IIM-IIT graduate, said that her brother had gotten married in February 2019 and the alliance came to via a matrimonial site.
Amid debates over harassment at the hands of spouses, an IIM-IIT graduate Prathyusha Challa took to YouTube to narrate the traumatic experience her family had endured due to the alleged extortion by her former sister-in-law.
In a video, posted to her YouTube channel, Challa spoke about how her brother Challa Sandip Babu's 2019 marriage lasted for just 10 days and what followed the ending of the relationship.
This comes against the backdrop of the ongoing debate over harassment against men after the 34-year-old Bengaluru techie died by suicide in December 2024. The software engineer had alleged harassment and extortion at the hands of his estranged wife and her family, the probe into which is still underway.
‘Sister-in-law misbehaved with parents’
Challa's brother, an assistant professor at an engineering college in Hyderabad, had married a woman from Rajahmundry on February 11, 2019. This arranged marriage took place after the two sides got acquainted on a matrimonial website.
In the video, the IIT-IIM graduate alleged that her former sister-in-law "misbehaved and spoke foul language with my parents, did not let my brother into his room and continuously blackmailed us that she would commit suicide".
Prathyusha Challa accused her sister-in-law of hatching a clear “extortion plan” with her sister, brother and boyfriend. Further, Challa alleged that her sister-in-law's sister had also executed a similar extortion plan with her in-laws.
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Challa went on to say that 10 days after the marriage, the sister-in-law left their Hyderabad home on her own accord and soon after filed a 498 case against her brother and family at the women's police station in Rajahmundry.
This immediately triggered the police to lodge an FIR on the same day, but "without any counselling as per Supreme Court guidelines, without any investigation and even our knowledge", Challa added.
Months later, the police had arrived at Challa's home in a private vehicle belonging to her sister-in-law, she alleged
Five years later today, the case is yet to begin, she said while attributing the reason as the petitioner's (former sister-in-law) absence 95 per cent of the time and the judge being in training.
Challa said that the past five years have been nothing but “traumatising" for her parents, whose health conditions are deteriorating. She also spoke about her brother's despair, saying that he has been travelling from Hyderabad to Rajahmundry 40 times for the case, “without any hope for justice”.
