KOCHI: An acquaintance via Facebook that blossomed into love and wedding, for which parental approval was obtained by the groom on the sly through a marriage broker, has ended in a tragedy. Little did 21-year-old Mofiya Praveen Dilshad know that the man she loved and married would be the cause of her death, all for a sum of Rs 40 lakh.
This was the amount Mohammed Suhail, her husband, needed to produce a movie. “My daughter never believed in the practice of giving dowry and when she married Suhail, we never did give any,” said Dilshad V Salim, Mofiya’s father.
According to him, she got to see Suhail’s real face within months of her marriage, which took place on April 3 this year. “Before the wedding, we were told that Suhail was from a well-to-do family and was working with a construction firm in the UAE. He is also a vlogger. He used to shoot YouTube videos. Mofiya had once sent me a link of one of his videos,” said Dilshad.
“Suhail wanted to produce a movie and told Mofiya that he would need Rs 40 lakh for it. He wanted her to ask us for the money. But she refused. This was the start of the domestic violence,” he said. Things became so bad that it became very difficult for Mofiya, who was a freelance interior designer and a law student, to live at her in-laws’ place.
According to her father, in reality, Suhail was unemployed and was living off the money Mofiya had earned from her interior design work. “He was not a good person and my daughter regretted marrying him,” added Dilshad.
“Suhail had also pronounced talaq in a registered letter sent to our mosque. However, the mosque officials refused to accept the talaq citing it old fashioned and not according to the law. They then called both the families for a reconciliation meeting,” said Dilshad. “However, during the meeting, Suhail launched a foul-mouthed tirade against my daughter.
On hearing the filthy language and the behaviour of Suhail and his family, mosque officials were aghast and told us that it would be good to agree to the talaq. They said it would be safe for Mofiya to not live with him anymore,” said Dilshad. Even a psychologist who counselled the couple had said that Suhail was a big fraud and it would be better if the divorce was finalised, he added.
Husband absconding
Mohammed Suhail, 28, Mofiya’s husband, has absconded after the news of his wife’s suicide spread. Suhail, a vlogger, has been at large since Monday night. “A search is under way. We will catch him soon,” said Ernakulam Rural SP K Karthick.