JOIN USThe Navy on Thursday submitted its report to the Defence Ministry on “wife-swapping” incidents at the southern naval command in Kochi, as alleged by the young wife of a naval commando.
The woman, a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, hails from Odisha. Her parents are no more and her brother lives abroad. Her husband, hailing from Uttarakhand, is part of the Navy’s elite marine commando force.
The two met on a social networking site in 2008 and got married after four years.
The woman, who was introduced to other naval officers by the commando before marriage, complained to his seniors about his misbehaviour who tried to mediate. But in February 2012, she filed a complaint of harassment against the commando and his seniors before marriage in Amboli police station in Mumbai.
Following the complaint, the naval officers were summoned. As the legal process began, the commando deposed before the high court and agreed to marry her. The marriage took place in March 2012. Subsequently, she submitted a letter to police station in Mumbai for quashing the FIR, which was ultimately done by the High Court in Mumbai. The marriage took place in Mumbai but was registered in Vishakhapatnam in 2012.
Months after marriage, the woman filed another complaint in May against her husband at Bheemunipatnam in Vishakhapatnam, where he was posted. She alleged mental and physical harassment by her husband and his colleagues.
The first batch of her latest complaints was filed on March 5 in Kochi in which she made several allegations against her husband and his colleagues.
Going by the Navy’s report to the Defence Ministry – a copy of which is available with Deccan Herald – the allegations are: (a) extra-marital affair of her husband; (b) molestation by three officers (c) Army officials preventing her from meeting her father-in-law who is also working in the Army and (d) senior officers of southern naval command destroying evidences of her molestation.
In January, the woman filed a harassment complaint against her husband and in-laws in Vasant Vihar police station in Delhi, where she is staying to prepare for the civil service examination.
The Delhi Police, however, transferred the case to Kochi where the incident allegedly took place.
A second complaint against her husband was filed for dowry harassment in a Kochi police station on April 4.