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Updated: Sep 05, 2017 08:59 IST

An Indian man from Punjab and his parents were arrested on Saturday from Florida’s Hillsborough county for abusing and beating his wife, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

Behind the arrest lay a shocking tale of domestic abuse and violence, as it emerged that the man’s parents had not only colluded with him in beating his wife, but travelled expressly from India to do so.

According to Hillsborough county sherrif’s office, 33-year-old Devbir Kalsi used to regularly beat his wife, Silky Gaind, and had told his parents that she was ‘disobedient’. At his behest, his father Jasbir Kalsi, 67, and mother, Bhupinder Kalsi, 61, travelled from India especially to “counsel and discipline” his wife.

On Friday, an argument between the couple ended in Kalsi hitting Gaind “repeatedly and forcefully.” When she tried to defend herself, his parents began hitting her too, and Jasbir Kalsi held a knife to her throat.

It was Gaind’s distress call to her parents in India that brought the abuse to the police’s notice. Gaind had told her parents that she was being beaten and held captive against her will in her husband’s house. According to the report in Tampa Bay Times, the caller who reported the abuse told deputies that Gaind may be afraid to approach the authorities because of cultural traditions.

When Hillsborough deputies arrived at Kalsi’s home in Riverview at 6.30 am on Saturday, no one answered the door. When the deputy kept knocking, Gaind tried to open the door and screamed for help, asking the police to save her and her one-year-old child.

Officers had to force their way in, as Kalsi tried to block the door. When the deputy tried to arrest Kalsi, his parents confronted the police. Gaind was found badly bruised and beaten, and investigations indicate that she had suffered abuse for a long time.

Gaind and her child were taken to a safe place and The Florida Abuse Hotline as well as US Immigration and Customs Enforcement were notified since all the parties are Indian nationals.

Kalsi was charged with false imprisonment, felony battery, child abuse, and denying access to 911. His father Jasbir was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon (knife), false imprisonment, child abuse, and denying access to 911 while his mother Bhupinder Kalsi faces charges for battery, domestic violence and failure to report child abuse, said the news report.