When protectors turn tormentors
By Reeta Sharma

THIS is not report on gender bias. Neither is it an account of cruelty against women who have been burnt, beaten or injured. This is a real-life story of villagers against just one woman. She was not beheaded in front of the entire village, as it happened in U.P. last year. She was also not dragged by her hair through the village, as it happened to a girl in Bihar this year. In this case certain villagers silently, calculatedly and collectively tormented her.

Sukhdev Kaur, who was married to Karanbir Singh in April 1993, began living with him in his joint family at Tohra village. (Interestingly, her in-law’s house has a common wall with the house of former SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra). For the next few years, the entire village had normal interaction with her.

On June 9, 1999, her husband died and was cremated at Tohra village the following day. Sukhdev Kaur had no issue in the six years of her married life.

Karanbir Singh’s elder brother, Lal Singh, too, had passed away a few years ago, leaving behind his widow, Gurmit Kaur, and two minor sons. With both Lal Singh and Karnbir Singh dead and their two sisters married, the question of sharing the property came up. Sukhdev Kaur, with no children, had the right to inherit her husband’s land, house and other property. This was not acceptable either to her in-law’s family or to other important villagers.

After the cremation of Karanbir Singh, Sukhdev Kaur was not allowed to meet her parents and other relatives. In fact, her father was manhandled by the relatives of the deceased as well as other villagers when he insisted on meeting his daughter. Meanwhile, Sukhdev Kaur was virtually imprisoned and mentally tortured by Gurmit Kaur and by the deceased’s sisters and their husbands. They repeatedly threatened to kill her if she did not give in to their wishes.

On June 18, Sukhdev Kaur was escorted to the tehsildar’s office in Nabha to sign certain papers. Mentally traumatised by her sudden widowhood and threats by her in-law’s family, she was completely shattered. With none of her near and dear ones around her, she signed wherever she was asked to.

Those signed papers were forced adoption deed documents. Sukhdev Kaur was supposed to have adopted the late Lal Singh’s son, Satbir Singh. Under the law, the minimum age gap between a child being legally adopted and the adopting parent must not be less than 21 years. Her in-law’s family, escorted and supported by the bigwigs of Tohra village, had no problem declaring that Sukhdev Kaur was aged 35. Interestingly, they all were fully aware that she was not more than 29, as was evident from her voter’s card and the ration card.

In the meantime, Sukhdev Kaur’s father moved an application in the court of the SDM, Nabha, apprehending the safety of his daughter. Sukhdev Kaur, when produced in his court, expressed her desire to go with her parents. This development unnerved her in-laws forcing them to take desperate steps.

Apprehending that she was most likely to get the forced adoption deed cancelled, her in-law’s family (which included Gurmit Kaur and her two minor sons, deceased’s two sisters and their husbands) produced a forged will by late Karanbir Singh stating that all his property would go to the minor sons of his late brother. "If my husband had written a will to this effect, then where was the need to force me to adopt one of those boys? Why has this will been produced now", she asks.

Nambardar Ralla Singh is still not sure whether Sukhdev Kaur exists as Karanbir’s widow. In the register of mutation in reference to Karanbir Singh’s land, Sukhdev Kaur has been clearly mentioned as his wife. Yet in the pedigree table Ralla Singh has given a statement saying, "I certify that Gurmit Kaur is the only wife of late Karanbir Singh".

The sarpanch and the panchayat of the village, showing scant regard for the law, signed a statement that Karanbir Singh had married Gurmit Kaur, his elder brother’s widow. "If that was so, why does every legal document show me as his wife? For six years, these very panchs, sarpanch and namabdar were fully acknowledging me as Karanbir’s wife. In the forged will, Gurmit Kaur becomes the sister-in law, but in their statement she is declared as his wife by the panchayat. Can we trust such a panchayat,"questions Sukhdev Kaur.

Interestingly, the late Karanbir Singh was working as a patwari. Hence, the Patwari Union had reportedly contributed Rs 60,000 to be given to Sukhdev Kaur. "This money as well as every other household goods have been forcibly taken away from me by my in-law’s family", accuses Sukhdev Kaur.

Within two months of her husband’s death, her in-law’s family and the entire village led by the panchayat have played a fraud on Sukhdev Kaur so as to deny all legal rights to her.

This feature was published on August 21, 1999