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Doctor held for infecting wife with HIV
Lucknow-based doctor and his mother have been booked for torturing his wife and hiding the fact that he was HIV-positive, reports Pradip Kumar Maitra.
Nagpur police on Saturday booked a Lucknow-based doctor and his mother for torturing his wife, the niece of a Maharashtra cabinet minister, and hiding from her the fact that he was HIV infected before marriage.
The mother and son were produced before the local court, which decided magisterial custody for the woman and police custody for the doctor.
Dhantoli police said Meena (name changed), an educated girl from a respectable family, was married to Dr Harshawardhan, a lecturer at the Lucknow-based Dental College, six years ago. Harshawardhan's father, Dr Prakash Chandra was dean of a dental college in Karnataka at the time.
Meena was initially unaware her husband was HIV-positive. She told the police he used to leave Lucknow frequently. Meena finally learnt the truth in 2003 when she fell ill and was taken to a hospital in Lucknow. As her health deteriorated, a thorough check-up revealed the shocking news. She later learnt Harshawardhan used to visit a hospital in the south for his HIV treatment. When she confronted her husband, he and in-laws began to torture her physically and mentally, the police said. Later, she was even barred from contacting her parents at Nagpur.
Meena's parents visited her recently in Lucknow and when they heard of her trauma, brought her to Nagpur and lodged a police complaint.
Harshawardhan’s father and sister are absconding.
Meena’s uncle, a minister in the Vilasrao Deshmukh cabinet, did not want to be identified. He said: "It is unfortunate the girl has contracted the disease for no fault of hers. We are worried about her."
