ACP, family face dowry charges

Halima Bai’s wedding with Asher Ruman, son of ACP Ismail Shareef took place in 2004.

Her parents gave Rs 10 lakh cash, an SUV, three kg gold, five kg silver and household articles as dowry. Trouble began two months after the wedding as Asher Ruman, his mother Najma Sultana, father Ismail Shareef, sisters Wafa Roshni and Beena Misba started harassing her for dowry, she stated in the complaint.

“My father-in-law misused his power and always insisted (that I) bring dowry. He threatened me that if I don’t bring Rs 20 lakh and (a) Skoda car, they will kill me and my children. He said that he is a senior police officer and nobody will book a case against him. My father-in-law and his relatives used me as a sales girl at their shop at R T Nagar.

They constantly tortured me physically and mentally,” Halima Bai has said in her complaint.

Haleema’s father, a businessman, gave Rs five lakh in June 2005 for the wedding expenses of his daughter’s sister-in-law, Beena Misba. Halima’s in-laws demanded Rs 20 lakh more and a Skoda for the marriage of another of Halima’s sisters-in-law, Wafa Roshni.

When Haleema’s father, facing financial constraints took some time to collect the money, her in-laws abused and assaulted her and threw her out of the house.

 She returned to her parents’ house on August 26, 2010 after they threatened to kill her and her children, she has alleged in the complaint.

Halima decided to file the complaint after her husband began planning to remarry. After Haleema and her mother met the girl chosen for Asher by Haleema’s in-laws and told her the truth, the girl’s mother insisted that the marriage could take place only after Asher Ruman divorced Haleema.

“Let God make me perish if he really exists. All allegations are false and baseless. She is doing this without any reason,” Shareef told Deccan Herald.

Haleema also filed the complaint with the Police Commissioner.

City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari said: “I am yet to receive the complaint. Such things are dealt with at the ACP level. No one becomes culprit just because someone makes allegations. We will investigate as per the law.”