NCP legislator, kin booked for harassing daughter-in-law

The Vile Parle police on Monday booked a woman NCP legislator, her husband, two sons and the younger daughter-in-law in a case of alleged harassment, cruelty and

The Vile Parle police on Monday booked a woman NCP legislator, her husband, two sons and the younger daughter-in-law in a case of alleged harassment, cruelty and assault filed by her elder daughter-in-law. The legislator and the family has denied all allegations.

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According to a police officer, the daughter-in-law filed the complaint against the in-laws on January 16. HT is not naming the politician as revealing her name would jeopardise the identity of the complainant (daughter-in-law), who has pressed charges of outraging of modesty against a member of the family.

The complainant said the trouble started after she gave birth to her second daughter, who was born premature and died later. The daughter-in-law alleged her brother-in-law used to make inappropriate gestures, while her sister-in-law (younger daughter-in-law), too, mentally harassed her. “The family wanted a son which is the reason for harassment mentioned in the complaint,” said a police officer.

The daughter-in-law has demanded her valuables kept at their residence be returned, he said. “After the FIR was registered, the police summoned the legislator and the other accused and recorded their statements. In their statements, they have denied the allegations, terming them as false,” he said.

The NCP leader and her family members have been booked under sections 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, the police said.

While speaking with HT, the legislator said: “All allegations are baseless. We never assaulted her…In January, her husband had to leave for Denmark. He even booked tickets for her and their daughter. One day, his wife told him that her WhatsApp stopped working and asked him to fix it. Her husband [an engineer] fixed it and found her chats which revealed her purported affairs. My son asked his wife for divorce with mutual consent, but she went to the police station and filed a complaint. We have filed divorce papers before a family court.”