Cop's wife alleges dowry harassment

Lucknow: When lakhs of women in the city were busy preparing for Karvachauth on Wednesday, a young woman was running from pillar to post for justice. A native of Motihari district of Bihar, Priya Singh married IPS officer of 2010 batch Himanshu Kumar in July 2014, now posted as superintendent of Firozabad district police. Fissures surfaced within a week of the wedding.Priya alleges that 30-year-old Himanshu was involved with another girl and kept his relationship hidden.
Priya's father retired as a government engineer but gifted land to the officer worth crores of rupees. Himanshu does not deny he received property as gift. "But it was without any considerations, only as gift," said the officer, denying dowry charges levelled against him.
When things did not improve, Priya's family filed an FIR against Himanshu and his immediate family under IPC section 498 (A) and Dowry Prohibition Act in May at Patna. Two months prior to that, Himanshu had filed a divorce suit against his wife in Delhi.
"My wife deserted me and was staying separately. Her father is influential and tried to mount pressure on me through senior officials to withdraw the divorce suit. When I disagreed, they got an FIR registered," said Kumar. The IPS officer too got a case registered against Priya at Noida four months back for hacking into his email accounts to obtain bank statement and personal details discreetly.
Meanwhile, Priya moved state government for help and submitted documents to establish how Himanshu had wronged her. The annexures she submitted contained excerpt of chats, travel and ticketing details, property and personal assets to back her case. A preliminary inquiry was ordered and an IG rank officer asked to handle the probe which was completed last month.
Home department secretary S K Raghuvanshi said he had yet to examine the report. Sources in the home department revealed Himanshu had been held accountable for violation of service rules.