Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): “Main Raja nahin banna chahta (I don’t want to become a Raja)”, was the reply of a man when the counsellor at the Bhopal District Family Court asked him why he wants divorce from his wife. The man, in his late twenties, was referring to the recent Indore’s Sonam-Raja murder case, which drew nationwide attention.
According to the counsellor at the family court, Noorunnisa Khan, the couple had got married about five years back and both are in private jobs. Theirs was an arranged marriage. They have been living separately for the past two years. The woman was not much educated at the time. The man claims that he helped her acquire skills in demand in the job market and she got a job in a factory in an industrial estate near Bhopal.
Soon thereafter, the man alleges, she got too close to one of her colleagues and kept on chatting on her mobile phone with him till late in the night. “When I asked whom she was conversing with, she refused to identify the person,” the man told the counsellor.
This became a friction point between them. Quarrels began and ultimately, about two years back, the woman walked out on her hubby, rented a house and began living separately. The man has now filed for divorce on the ground of extra-marital relations.
The woman, however, says that her husband’s suspicions are misplaced and that she talks with her male colleagues as part of her job. She is willing to live with her husband. But the man is unconvinced. He told the counsellor that he doesn’t want to get murdered. “I don’t want to meet Raja’s fate,” he kept on repeating.
‘Men not ready to compromise’
The counsellor said that extra-marital affairs - whether real or perceived - were always one of the key reasons for stress and strain in marital life. “In 5 out of 15 cases, men suspect their wives,” she said. But what has changed after the Raja Raghuvanshi case is that the men are no longer ready for a compromise. “They want to end their marriages,” Khan added.
