IIT Prof Forces Wife to Abort Their Girl Child

MADURAI: The Madurai district police have booked an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi on charges of coercing his wife into aborting their third child found to be a girl in a pre-natal test.

Police said A Bharathi (31) quit her teaching job at a private college and moved with R Ayothiraman (37) to Delhi after marriage. The couple has two girl children.

When Bharathi was pregnant for the third time, her husband and family took her for scanning, she said in her police complaint. As the test confirmed the child to be a girl, the family forced her into abortion, she claimed. Police said Bharathi has provided evidence from doctors to show that she had undergone an abortion.

According to Bharathi, her family paid 100 sovereigns of gold and another `6 lakh worth of items as dowry. The complaint also said her in-laws had demanded another 100 sovereigns.

Police added that they have registered the case under IPC Sections 498A (for harassment), 315 (for aborting the pregnancy) and under the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women against Ayothiraman, his mother and two relatives. The police said the couple seemed to have had a strained relationship and in June 2014, Ayothiraman sent a divorce notice to her. Ayothiraman is an associate professor with the Department of Civil Engineering. He was not immediately available for comment.

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