Drunken hubby says talaq, but wants wife to stay

BHUBANESWAR:  A Muslim couple in Orissa's Khurda district has sought police protection to stay together after the husband pronounced triple talaq in a drunken state.

Seikh Khalid and his wife Jhunu Bibi of Tarakua village approached police on Friday and sought protection.

Inspector in-charge of Khurda police station Nimai Charan Sethi, however, said "we had taken the couple to their village where we had convened a meeting. The villagers were not against the couple staying together".

There was a similar case in Bhadrak district, in which villagers were opposed to a couple staying together after the husband pronounced triple talaq in drunken state.

Human rights activists and women's organisations raised their voice against the villagers' action. Later, the Supreme Court in a verdict directed that the couple could stay together.