In second case in week, 26-year-old Delhi man arrested for instant talaq

A 26-year-old man has been arrested for divorcing his wife through instant triple talaq here, the Delhi Police said on Monday, in a second arrest in the national capital after the practice was criminalised.

Mohammad Tosif divorced Asma Saheba (22) on Friday and the matter was reported to the Kamla Market police station on Sunday, they said.

Asma (22), the complainant, told PTI that she was married to Tosif two years ago and the couple has a seven-month-old son. Saheba said she suspected Tosif was in an extramarital affair.

"He had been torturing me for the past two months for divorce. I refused to give him divorce as per sharia. He had also been asking for dowry. Before Eid, he demanded a sacrificial goat which my father was unable to give. I was also against his relationship with another woman but did not want divorce," she said.

Asma said she has been residing at her parents residence after Tosif asked her to leave his house in Chawri Bazar.

In her complaint, Asma said she was divorced through triple talaq by Tosif when she asked him for money for their son at his office at Mohalla Nihariyan on GB Road.

Tosif, who works as a graphic designer, refused to give her money and physically assaulted her and pronounced triple talaq, the police said, adding he also threatened to kill her.

Police said Tosif has been arrested under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act which was passed by Parliament recently. It criminalised the practice of instant triple talaq.

Tosif has been sent to one-day judicial custody, a senior police official said.

On Saturday, a 38-year-old man was arrested in north Delhi's Azad market area after his wife alleged that he divorced her through instant triple talaq after more than six years of marriage due to "non-fulfilment of the demand of dowry".