Takes Permission to prosecute 'husband'

A young Afghan woman, claiming to have been duped into wedlock by an already married Indian Army doctor, met Home Minister P Chidambaram seeking his permission to prosecute him.

A young Afghan woman, claiming to have been duped into wedlock by an already married Indian Army doctor, on Monday met Home Minister P Chidambaram seeking his permission to prosecute him.

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A resident of Kabul, Sabra Khan, was assured by the Home Minister that he would look into the matter and initiate appropriate action, her lawyer claimed.

"We gave a copy of the representation that we earlier made to the Home Ministry and he said he would look into the matter," said Sabra's lawyer Raveendra Singh Garhia.

Efforts to reach the doctor, who works at the Army Hospital in Pithoragarh could not succeed, but an army spokesperson here said a joint police and military investigation has been initiated into the case.

According to Sabra, she worked with the Indian Mission in Kabul, when she married Major Dr Chandrashekhar Pant for whom she had worked as a translator in 2006.

The doctor had converted to Islam to marry her and changed his name to Himmat Khan but did not reveal his actual marital status, claimed Sabra, who is in India for the past one month to seek justice.

"I was working for him as a translator in Kabul, where he was posted at the Indira Gandhi hospital run by the Indian mission, when he approached my parents seeking to marry me," Sabra told reporters here.

Sabra said she came to India last month and went to meet the Major at the Army hospital at Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, but did not get a favourable response from him.

The police, with whom she registered a complaint, expressed inability to take any further action in the matter without the permission of the Central government as the offence has been committed outside India's territory.