Claiming to be HIV + for a divorce ! Story from Ludhiana

[Guest guest]

A tale of cunning and deceit. By Vimal Sumbly

Tribune News Service. Ludhiana, October 18

It is a tale of cunning and deceit. A man conceives a plan to divorce

an unsuspecting wife by not only committing fraud, but also getting

himself declared as HIV positive. Apparently, having no reason to get

rid of his wife, who could not conceive even after 12 years of

marriage, a man in Prem Colony here sought the divorce from her by

claiming in the court that he had been suffering from AIDS and could

not continue to live with his wife.

According to Charanjit Kaur, she was " legally divorced " by her

husband Balbir Singh of Prem Colony about six months ago on the false

pretext that he was suffering from AIDS. She alleged that Balbir

wanted to get rid of her as she had not been able to bear a child to

him.

Charanjit Kaur, who had come to the Mini Secretariat to present the

case at the weekly sangat darshan presided over by the Deputy

Commissioner, Mr S.K. Sandhu, said that her husband wanted to desert

her for a long time. However, he could not put forward any excuse

which could become the basis for divorce.

Ultimately, he conceived a plan of his own. He allegedly procured

some false medical investigation report, which diagnosed him of being

HIV positive. At the same time, he allegedly managed to get her thumb

impressions on some blank papers, which he later misused for getting

the divorce.

Charanjit Kaur, who belongs to Subhash Nagar area, is the only sister

of her four brothers. She was married to Balbir Singh in 1989. The

couple seemed to get along very well in the initial years. As time

passed by, her husband expected her to conceive, which she could not.

The differences grew and Balbir wanted to get rid of her. However,

she had nowhere to go and she resisted all attempts of divorce.

On April 23, 2001, Balbir got her thumb impressions on a set of blank

papers, which he allegedly used for formalising the divorce. And it

came as a rude shock to Charanjit to learn that she had been made to

mark her thumb impressions on her own divorce papers. She said since

she was illiterate and had no reasons to doubt her husband, she made

the thumb impressions in good faith.

Her four brothers had got a case registration against Balbir in Basti

Jodhewal police station on August 9, 2001. However, the police did

not take any action against him. Charanjit Kaur maintains that her

husband had procured forged medical documents which have declared him

as HIV positive. She pointed out that had that been the case, she

could herself have contacted the disease. She demanded that he should

be examined afresh. The police, on the other hand, has been

maintaining that Balbir had claimed that he had paid Rs 40,000 to

Charanjit Kaur for making her agree to the divorce. This is being

strongly denied by Charanjit and her brothers

http://www.tribuneindia.com/20011019/ldh1.htm#2

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