Stepmom names two-month-old in dowry FIR
Mumbai: In diapers, lying in her mother's lap and yet to sprout teeth, but Zoya is an accused in a dowry harassment case. The two-month-old baby was named along with seven adults by her stepmother in a complaint letter to the police. What is worse is that the police has included the child's name in the FIR.
Zoya - who should be playing in crib - had to spend several hours in a police station with her mother, foregoing food and sleep and came very close to being arrested.
Her mother, Reshma Shamsuddin Khan, pleaded with the police. "Sahab ye toh choti bacchi hai. Iska aapne kaise complaint le liye. Toh woh bole nai kuch problem nahin hai, hota hai saat-aath saal ke bachi ka bhi hamare paas case hai. Tab humney socha ke court jayenge. (I told them that she is a baby and how can you write her name in the FIR. The policemen said that it was no big deal and that they had other cases against young children too. That's when we decided to go to court.")
Not surprisingly, Zoya is the youngest bail applicant before the Mumbai Sessions Court. She was granted anticipatory bail on Sunday and is now safely in her mother's care.
The defense lawyer, Ashok Bhole said, "My client called me and told me everything. I saw that the child's name was also in the complaint, so I quickly filed a bail application in the sessions court."
Meanwhile, legal experts are stunned to say the least.
Advocate Usha Makasare says, "It is crazy. Unheard of. We will have to see under what circumstances the court has given this order."
In all this, one wonders what prompted the complainant to drag the child into the mess and worse still, was it right for the police to have even called the child to the police station? The officer who is to blame for this bizarre incident has now been suspended and the child's name removed from the FIR.
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Two-month-old Zoya gets dragged into a dowry harassment case filed by her father's first wife. Legal experts, child rights activists react in shock at her having to get anticipatory bail to avoid arrest
www.mid-day.com/news/2009/jun/210609-Zoya-two-month-old-girl-anticipatory-bail-dowry-harrassment-case-youngest-accused-Mumbai-news.htm
In a case straight out of Ripley's Believe It Or Not, the Mumbai Sessions court last Wednesday (June 17, 2009) granted anticipatory bail for what must have been their youngest applicant ever a two-month-old baby: Zoya aka Mehak Shamshuddin Khan. Lucky for her, or Zoya could have ended up behind bars.
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Mother Reshma Khan of two-month-old baby Zoya said the family was called for an inquiry to Nehru Nagar police station. She sat there with the baby in her arms for 10 hours without reprieve, from 1 pm till 10 pm. She even had to feed her baby in front of the police and visitors
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Zoya, who has got bail on a surety amount of Rs 10,000, is a member of the Khan family from Kurla who have been accused by Shakila Khan (27) in a dowry harassment case and for a criminal breach of trust. The sessions judge S N Sardesai in his order granted bail for seven of the eight applicants who applied for the anticipatory bail.
Shakila lodged a complaint against Zoya's father and her divorced spouse Shamsuddin Khan at the Nehru Nagar police station and named the entire family in her letter, including Zoya, her biological mother (Shamsuddin's second wife), a neighbour and four relatives. Shakila accused them of harassing and demanding dowry of Rs one lakh and torturing her, the police said.
Khan's lawyers Anil Bhole and Lata Vhotkar said the police initially thought that the matter would be resolved between both parties amicably. "However, when Shakila submitted a complaint letter against Shamsuddin and his family in which his second wife Reshma's baby was also mentioned, he had to rush for anticipatory bail for all his family members," said Bhole.
The police registered the case on Wednesday evening against Khan and his family members, acting on Shakila's complaint letter submitted earlier.
"Shakila and Shamsuddin divorced two years ago and he has since remarried and had Zoya with his second wife," said Nasim Bano Khan, Shamsuddin's mother. The entire family, apart from Shamsuddin, was summoned to the Nehru Nagar police station on Friday for questioning. "We were at the police station from 1 pm to 10 pm. Who would have looked after my baby while we were being questioned by the policemen? Our baby is so small, so I have to still bring her along every time," said a distraught Reshma.
The case so far
Police have filed a case against Shamshuddin Khan (divorced husband of Shakila), his second wife, daughter, mother, brother, two sisters and one neighbour for dowry harassment (section 498), criminal breach of trust (section 406) and acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention (section 34). Shamsuddin's bail application was rejected and he was arrested by the Nehru Nagar police station on Saturday.
