Blamed for hiccups of husband, woman seeks police help

AURANGABAD: Of the many hiccups in husband-wife relationships, this one is a first.
A 26-year-old woman has approached the Woman Redressal Cell (WRC) of the Aurangabad rural police seeking help after her husband and in-laws allegedly started blaming her for her husband's hiccups and packed her off to her parent’s place two years ago and refuse to bring her back.
From considering it as an easy-to-tackle domestic issue to launching an investigation and even roping in a doctor to now seeking legal opinion – the Aurangabad rural police are in a spin over the last week to tackle this unusual grievance.aura The woman, who hails from Bidkin and is an undergraduate, stated in her complaint that she got married three years ago and things were fine for the first 15 days, following which she went to her parent’s place. When she returned to her husband, he started complaining of hiccups each time he saw her.
Initially stumped by the nature of the complaint, the redressal cell thought it best to resolve the matter with the traditional intervention method of counseling. Notices were shot to both the husband, a graduate and a farmer, and the wife, and a time set for the meeting. Both reached the Aurangabad police headquarters separately last week. “But the minute the man saw his wife, he started getting hiccups. It became difficult for us to counsel the couple as his hiccups wouldn’t stop,” said Jaishree Adhe, assistant police inspector with the redressal cell.
The man was then told to visit an ENT after the failed counseling session. The doctor examined him, but could not find anything to support the man’s hiccup claim. The doctor’s certificate is now attached to the complaint.
Showing rare enthusiasm to resolve the matter, the police summoned the man and his wife again, this time to experiment and verify his hiccup claim. “We called the man for a session, during which we made his wife cover her face and sit in a corner. He was normal initially, but the moment she removed her scarf he started getting hiccups, which continued for about three hours,” said Adhe.
The police went into a tizzy as the man’s hiccups continued. “But the moment his wife was sent out of the chamber, the hiccups stopped,” an officer said.
Still unconvinced, the police called in the man’s parents for a session. “The parents claimed that they visited all possible temples, doctors and healers, but nothing has helped. We have asked them to come back after Ganesh Utsav as we too are busy with bandobast,” said an official.
An officer who was part of the counselling team said the wife has just one question: why does her husband get hiccups only in her presence.
The issue is now the talking point in the Aurangabad rural police headquarters, and also the WRC, which routinely handles dowry and domestic violence cases, but seems stuck in this case of a marriage falling apart because of a hiccup.