MUMBAI, November 6: The wife of the Commissioner of Women and Child Welfare in Navi Mumbai, Prem Singh Meena, has accused her husband of battering and brutal torture. In a case filed at the Turbhe police station, Meena's wife, Santosh, alleges that for 14 years the IAS officer made her life a living hell.

Sporting a ghastly black burn mark on her face (reportedly caused when a hot iron was pressed against her face), the 33-year-old school teacher told Express Newsline today, ``my husband, Prem Singh Meena, has been beating me up from the first day of our marriage in 1984, as I could not bring a dowry of Rs 25 lakh. I tolerated him only because my traditional Rajasthani upbringing did not allow me to rebel." Apparently, her husband used to occasionally strip her naked and hammer her with a stick, occasionally calling her a prostitute.

The last straw was when her husband allegedly threw her out of a running car near Kalamboli, on August 30 this year, when they were driving down from Khadakvasala. "I decided then not to take any more of this," she says now.

After filing a police complaint at Turbhe police station on Tuesday, Santosh today also submitted a written complaint to the state chief secretary and home secretary who assured her that action will be taken against Prem.

Santosh says she found the courage to come out in the open after she approached Beena Sharma of the Mahila Suraksha & Udyog Mandal for assistance. She is currently residing in a secret destination as she is afraid that her husband might try to attack her again.

Apparently, when people at Kalamboli where Meena allegedly threw Santosh out of the car questioned the commissioner about this atrocious act, he told them that his wife was unstable and fell off accidentally. While Prem Singh Meena was not available for comment, those working under him have expressed surprise over the charges of wife-beating.

Some of the juniors said, ``though Meena saab used to often lose his temper with the staff, it never struck us that he could be a wife-basher; anyhow office is different from personal life.'' While State Chief Secretary P Subramanium has stated that Meena will be removed from the Women and Child Welfare department following the police complaint, the concerned employees have said no such intimation has reached their office from Mantralaya.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.