(This story originally appeared in on Apr 22, 2017)

A 23-year-old Amdavadi has filed an application with the police, accusing her husband of five years of torturing her. Her grouse is that he eats non-vegetarian food – reportedly breaking his promise of staying off meat once they get married. The inability to compromise over their food habits has led the couple to opt for divorce . Rima Doshi who belongs to the Jain community is a staunch vegetarian that eschews even onions, potatoes, brinjals and garlic. Six years ago, she fell in love with Karan Chandela who worked in a small computer office opposite her house near Sola Bhagwat.As they got to know each other, Rima found that Karan who was a Rajput from Bihar was a hardcore non-vegetarian. This was not acceptable to Rima whose community objected to the eating of meat and fish based on the principle of non-violence (ahimsa). When she objected to his food habits, Karan reportedly promised to give it all up for love. Happy with this promise, Rima told her parents about Karan. Her parents protested because they came from different caste, community and social strata. While Rima’s father was a senior government official, Karan’s family managed a farm in Bihar.Her father also felt that Karan, a computer engineer who earned a measly Rs 15,000 a month, would be unable to keep his daughter happy. Rima, who had become a BCom graduate by then, refused to budge on the issue. Unwilling to see her unhappy, her parents agreed to the match. Since Rima was their only child, the parents asked the couple to move in with them. Two years later, Karan and Rima gave birth to twin daughters. Differences began to creep up between the couple. According to Rima, Karan would not give her enough money for the kids. He would also allegedly make frequent “business trips” out of the city. As their fights grew in intensity, Rima’s parents advised her to separate.When she refused, they asked the couple to move out. Karan and Rima rented a house in another locality nearby and shifted there. The fights continued, but things came a head some days ago when Rima found out from his friends that Karan had eaten non-vegetarian food on a recent trip with his friends. The 28-year-old and eight of his friends had gone on a trip to Udaipur and Srinathji in Rajasthan. That was the last straw. Rima confronted Karan and a big fight ensued. He allegedly thrashed her and threatened to kill her. Rima left with her kids and shifted to her parents’ house.They convinced her to go to the police. Handing over her application, Rima told PSI at the Mahila Police Station that Karan earned almost Rs 40,000 a month but gave her very little money to run the household and manage the needs of their kids. She also claimed that he lied a lot. According to Rima, Karan lied about how much salary he really got. He would allegedly claim to go out of town on company business when he was actually vacationing with friends, drinking and eating non-vegetarian food. Karan should not have got married if he did not want to give up eating non-vegetarian food, she told the PSI.Karan, who was also summoned to the station, told the PSI that he had never consumed non-vegetarian food in front of Rima, or taken her out anywhere were non-vegetarian food was served. He said he ate non-vegetarian food and consumed alcohol only when he went out of the city with friends and was sure that he would not return home that day. ACP Panna Momaya said, “The PSI tried to counsel the two, asking them to spend some time with their kids and think things over. However, complainant was adamant that she did not want to return to her husband’s house. She also did not want to file an FIR. The two decided to file for divorce with mutual consent.”*Some names changed to protect identity