Wife alleges abuse, Mumbai priest claims she mocked him, likened him to Asaram Bapu

A Bandra metropolitan court has ordered a priest from Santacruz to pay a monthly maintenance of ₹6,000 to his wife and minor son

A Bandra metropolitan court has ordered a priest from Santacruz to pay a monthly maintenance of ₹6,000 to his wife and minor son, after she moved court alleging domestic violence. The priest, in his defence, told the court that she would make fun of his dark complexion, bodyshame him and liken him to rape convict Asaram Bapu.

The 37-year-old woman got married to the man in 1997, and moved to Mumbai in 2004 to stay with him. According to her plea, the man started to harass her soon after, and used to abuse and physically assault her for not paying dowry. “He would spit on the floor and make me clean it. Around 2009, he beat me and chopped off my hair. In 2011, he dragged me by the hair and threw me out of the house,” she told the court.

The woman alleged that he beat her with a stick owing to which she could not see from one eye for more than a month. In her complaint, she said that on May 1, 2014, he had unnatural sex with her in front of their minor son. The woman approached the police in May 2014 after which a non-cognisable complaint was registered.

Denying the allegations levelled against him, the priest said “the woman criticised his choice of clothes, made fun of his dark complexion and pot-belly, likening him to Asaram Bapu”.

The woman sought ₹10,000 a month towards maintenance, along with ₹8 lakh compensation. Metropolitan magistrate Vishwas Mane rejected the demand for compensation on the grounds that “the amount of loss of earnings, medical expenses and loss for physical and mental injury cannot be ascertained only on the basis of oral evidence”.