NRI doc arrested for London wife torture

An NRI doctor settled in London was arrested today from North 24-Parganas in a pre-dawn raid, hours before he was about to fly back to Britain, on a torture complaint filed by his wife.

Tarif Rehman, 32, was picked up from a relative’s house where he was staying. He was scheduled to fly to Delhi this morning and board a flight to London later in the day.

Rehman had married fellow NRI Sofia Ahmed, who is in her 20s, in 2005 at her ancestral home in Dent Mission Row in Kolkata’s Ekbalpore area, police said.

“My father Wazir Ahmed (a London-based businessman) gave the entire dowry my husband’s family had demanded. He had to pay Rs 2 lakh in cash and give jewellery worth Rs 12 lakh,” Sofia, a British national by birth, had said in her January 31 complaint.

She alleged that she was tortured mentally and physically. “He kept asking for more money,” the complaint said.

An officer from Ekbalpore police station said: “It was an arranged marriage. Rehman had done his MBBS from the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital. After the marriage, he shifted to London with Sofia and studied further. Wazir funded his studies. The couple used to live at Canterbury in London.”

Sofia left London with Wazir and reached Kolkata on December 26.

“Unable to bear his daughter’s plight, Sofia’s father decided to bring her back to the Ekbalpore house,” the officer said.

Sofia told the police that her parents had tried their best to thresh the problem out and had talked to Rehman several times.

“But it did not work. He continued to beat me up. The moments I used to spend with him became a nightmarish experience,” she said.

Sofia said she was afraid he would kill her some day.

“We used to stay together in an apartment. He threatened to kill me several times. I would always think that I might be murdered any moment. I had no option but to leave London,” she said.

Rehman arrived in the city on January 26 to visit his parents, who live in Nadia.

“After visiting his parents, Rehman went to Sofia’s Ekbalpore home and allegedly assaulted her there too. She had to be admitted to a nursing home with injuries,” said another officer investigating the case.

“We took three days to conduct a preliminary investigation. The injury report given by a doctor confirmed that Sofia had been physically assaulted. We then started hunting for Rehman,” the officer said.

The police found out that Rehman was staying at his brother’s house at Kaikhali off VIP Road.

“We came to know that he was scheduled to catch a flight this morning to Delhi, from where he would take another flight to London. Around 4am, we raided the house and arrested him,” the officer said.


The Telegraph