If the Sheena Bora murder case, in which Star TV ex-CEO Peter Mukerjea's wife Indrani is accused of killing her own daughter, has shocked you out of your wits, here's more. In one of the rarest cases, a girl studying in a prestigious college of Delhi University has moved a Delhi court, alleging that her mother has sexually assaulted her several times.

The girl in her petition has alleged that she has been subjected to cruelty and sexual harassment at the hands of her parents. The complaint has been filed under Section 12 of the Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act, 2005.

"I have been subjected to physical and mental torture by my parents since childhood. At that point, I thought it was normal for parents to beat their children," Prerna (name changed) told Mail Today.

"However, when I reached senior school, I came to know about the perverted nature of my mother. She used to grope me, touch my private parts and scold me. I could not understand her intentions. My parents always stopped me from going out with my friends and participating in school and college activities," Prerna said, adding that her parents used to call her teachers and friends and urged them not to involve her in extracurricular activities.

Prerna also alleged that she has been a victim of parental cruelty and sexual harassment for years and that her parents confined her to their residence for days at times. "They used to lock me up and didn't send me to school for days," she said.

Her situation allegedly got worse when she started going to college. "The college days opened doors of opportunities to me. Poetry and plays have been my interests. I used to be an active member of Delhi Poetry Slam, but my parents once called the organisers and urged them to stop me from taking part in the event. My mother with the support of my father had time and again taken steps to put an end to my eagerness in participating in extracurricular activities. My mother turns very violent."

Citing several incidents of sexual assault on her, Prerna said, "One morning, my mother entered my room while I was sleeping and groped me. When she started feeling me up, I resisted and pushed her away. She insisted that I should not resist and accused me of sleeping around with men."

However, when Mail Today contacted the complainant's mother, she refuted all allegations. "You have been misinformed. Everything is fine," she said.

However, Prerna accused her mother of physically and sexually assaulting her very often. Citing yet another incident, she alleged that her mother got angry, physically assaulted her and tore her clothes when she sought permission to meet a friend for a while.

After mustering some courage, Prerna said, she decided to seek police intervention. "However, the police turned down my complaint and told me that a mother cannot resort to sexual assault? I filed my first complaint in the Roop Nagar Police Station, but was shooed away. I later went to the Civil Lines Police Station, but they too turned down my complaint. Later, I had to seek the Delhi police commissioner's intervention," she said. Prerna has parted ways with her parents and is living with her friends. She alleged that her mother has been sending her abusive text messages ever since she left home in disgust.

"The magistrate has adjourned the mat-Mother refutes allegations levelled against her and asked us to get more legal precedents. The court wants us to explain as to how the complaint filed by a daughter against her mother under the provision of Prevention of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, is maintainable at a time when there is no provision for making the mother as a respondent under the Act. The definition of the respondent in the said Act states that the respondent can be an adult male. Also the definition of the said definition states that the relative of the husband of the aggrieved/complainant can also be a respondent," said Alok Tripathi, counsel for the complainant.

'Biased law'

Talking about the complaint filed by Prerna, Deepika Bhardwaj, a journalist-turned-filmmaker, who is at present working on a documentary on the misuse of Section 498 A, said, "A criminal should not be punished on the basis of gender. Anyone, who is a wrongdoer, should be punished or stopped from committing a crime.

Laws in most parts of the world are gender neutral and provide protection to the abused people irrespective of gender or relationship in a domestic relationship. In India, most laws dealing with crime within a family presume only man as the perpetrator, which is not the case always. A woman can be equally abusive to another woman, be it a daughter, a mother, a mother-in-law or a daughter-in-law.

A woman can be equally abusive to a man too. Laws should provide protection and recourse to everyone, otherwise they become tools for only one section. There was a recent case in Mumbai where a 97-year-old widow and a freedom fighter has been thrown out by her daughter-in-law and granddaughter. She should get justice.

Though article 15 (3) of the Constitution discusses special provisions for women, laws favour wives or live-in partners and not other women in domestic relationships. It should be addressed."

