Saudi Arabia-Based Banker Divorces Hyderabad Wife Through Newspaper Ad

Hyderabad: After divorces being declared on WhatsApp and speed post, a newspaper ad has been used by a Saudi Arabia-based banker to end his marriage to a 25-year-old woman in Hyderabad. Mohd Mushtaquddin has been charged by the Hyderabad police with cheating and cruelty.

The woman told the police she was shocked to see the ad in a local Urdu daily on March 4. Then she received a phone call from her husband's lawyer.

Mohd Mushtaquddin married the woman in 2015 and took her after five months to Saudi Arabia, where he worked. They had a baby girl last year.

Two months ago, they came to India and the woman went to her parents' home reportedly after a fight with her husband. Three weeks later, Mushtaquddin allegedly left for Saudi Arabia without a word.  He did not answer phone calls, the woman has alleged. She was told by her father-in-law that Mushtaquddin had returned to Saudi Arabia and was not allowed in their home.

''If I did anything wrong, he should have spoken to me and my parents. If I was wrong he should have given talaaq in front of everyone as he has married me in front of all relatives," the woman has said.

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''Why did he run away to Saudi Arabia without meeting me... and divorce me through an ad even with a 10-month-old baby," she wondered, her little daughter on her lap.

According to police officer S Gangadhar, Mushtaquddin had harassed his wife for a dowry of Rs 20 lakh.

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"We are conducting a probe and also verifying if a divorce announced through a newspaper is valid under the Sharia," Mr Gangadhar said.

The case has emerged two days after a man was arrested in another part of the city for mailing a postcard with "triple talaq" to divorce his new wife. In a rare arrest linked to the practice that has been challenged in the Supreme Court by Muslim women, the police charged the 38-year-old man with harassing and cheating his wife.

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Earlier this year, another Hyderabad man based in the US allegedly divorced his wife by sending her "triple talaq" in a WhatsApp message. Triple talaq allows Muslim men to get an instant divorce by saying the word "talaq" or divorce thrice. Next month, the Supreme Court will take up petitions challenging it.