Well, its embarrassing to talk about this topic when my own family is involved, but, I'm very much in need of some good legal advice.
Family Intro : Our's is a family of 4 - mom, dad, brother & myself [girl]. Dad - Govt. official, mom - house wife, brother - engineer, myself - doctor. We come from a well to do family. Sounds like a perfect family to the world, but unfortunately, not even close. Reason being, my parents were & are very materialistic, money minded, calculative people who think more about themself & cared less for us. My brother & I never had a normal childhood. Dad abused us physically, verbally & mentally all through our childhood, for the most silliest reasons, like for sitting on his chair, for asking a friend to come home to play, for be-friending someone who didnt belong to our caste, for scoring less than 90 out of 100 in a test etc. He just liked to be very controlling - military style. Mom wasnt interested in a family life but leaned a lot towards the social life - going to movies, ladies club, kitty parties, buying expensive jewellary, sarees etc. She would spent erratically for herself, but convincing her to buy me new school shoes ['coz I was picked out from the line up for wore out shoes] or a birthday dress was like mission impossible. Not 1 day went by without my parents fighting, sometimes physically. They never appreciated us for good behaviour or studying well & always said, we weren't good enough & humiliated us by comparing us to other kids. The more we tried to impress them, the heigher they would raise the bar. Our parents would threaten to stop our schooling or give us up for adoption if we ever discussed about the abuse or family matters to an outsider. The main driving force for me to study well & get into professional college[Govt. seat] was to be able to stand on my own feet so I could get out of that torturous life. By God's grace, it payed off...today I'm a doctor, happily married to my husband & an NRI.
Drama begins: My dad retired after my wedding, sold his house & moved with my brother who built a house in his[bro's] plot with about 85% of bro's & 15% of the total investment from my dad. My bro had an inter-caste marriage with his classmate against my parents wishes. My mom was the most upset, because she had plans of getting him married to a big shots daughter who had promised quite a bit of dowry. From day 1, my mom's mission was to some how break up their marriage & kick my sister-in-law[SIL] out of the house. My mom always complainted that my SIL didnt get even a single spoon or penny from her fathers house. My parents have tried to poison my brother's mind whenever they have found him alone to create misunderstanding, which hasn't worked. My mom would call me up crying with false alligations against my SIL asking me to convince my brother to divorce her. Each time, we openly confronted my mom about her false alligations, proving she lied, in an attempt to stop her from lying about my SIL & to feel happy for them instead. She was all the more upset with my SIL because she proved that my mom was lying in front of everyone.
My parents came to visit me a couple of yrs ago with the same mission in mind...convince me to break up my brother's marriage. When I bluntly denied to help them in their rediculous idea [as I was no more afraid of them nor did I live under their roof], they tried to create misunderstandings b/w my husband & me. When my husband & I realised what they were trying to do, my husband gave me the courage to confront them about their behaviour. I questioned them, not only about their present behaviour but also about their every single abuse & torture all through my childhood. My paretns verbally abused me & my dad tried to hit me who was stopped by my husband. My husband immediately preponed their tickets back to India, cutting their 6mon trip to less than 3months. My mom stole all my wedding jewellary & some cash from my house.
After they went back, they started blaming my SIL for the incident that happened in US saying that I had never got the courage to stand in front of them & question them in their whole life, but today I have because my SIL has spoiled my mind. The more my brother intervened to support my SIL, the more they verbally abused her. This was an everyday thing for my brother & SIL. One day [2011], my mom crossed the line & hit my SIL when she was 3 months pregnant. My bro & SIL didnt take any legal actions against them to safe gaurd the family reputation & even begged my SIL's parents to keep it within the family. My SIL developed internal bleeding due to the on going stress because of my parents. My brother feared for her & the baby's safety & health & decided to temporarily move out of his own house till the baby was born. My parents were very happy that they were able to kick SIL out of the house & that this would strain their marriage & my bro would leave her & come back home. Well, that didnt happen.
I flew down to India to my bro's rented house this March to meet my bro's new baby & convinced them to move back to the house since the baby was born. My parents werent happy about us moving back & picked up a fight with SIL's parents & told them to take their daughter back to their home bare hands because thats how she married their son. My mom stole some of my possessions & expensive gifts that I had brought for my friends & relatives. Few days later, my father picked up a fight with my bro, cursed my SIL for coming bare hands to the house & tried to hit him. When I intervened to avoid my bro getting hit, my mom caught hold of me, held me by my hair, dragged me to the corridor outside the house saying, I'm the 1 who brought them back to the house, so they should start by kicking me out of the house. My bro saved me from them & got me inside. Later that afternoon, when my bro wasnt there, my mom poured hot curry over my face, my dad bent me over & started hitting me while my mom got a knief to stab me. I couldnt see anything with the curry burning my eyes. The SIL who was holding the baby & the maid tried to save me but my parents hit & pushed them away. My SIL paniced, called up my bro on his cell screaming - "your parents will kill ur sister". Thats when I knew my mom had a knief in her hand. My mom cut my hand at a couple of places when I tried to defend myself. With the fear of getting stabbed, I screamed really loud to escape from them. That scared & startled them enough to let go of me. They immediately ran out of the house with the knief & started displaying the knife to our neighbors [who had come out hearing me scream] saying, I tried to stab them.
When they heard me talking to my bro & husband [on the phone] if I should lodge a complaint against them, my parents went to the police station & lodged a false complaint on all 3 of us, saying we attacked them. My dad used his political influence to bag the concerned S.I. at the police station & also had the local MLA's right hand & some goonda looking men to intimidate us when the S.I. was talking to us . The S.I. didnt even asks us what really happened. The S.I. & the constables harrassed us & threatened to confescate my passport & put us behind bars. The constables & the goonda looking men threatened me that, I'll never be able to go back to US. They forced us to agree to my parents demands & had us sign the agreement paper. The S.I. humiliated me & yelded @ me when I questioned the injustice. My husband feared my safetly & asked me to fly back to US immediately.
After this incident, my mom has hit my SIL 2 more times. She had bleeding lips & kitchen scraper marks on her hand which bled a little. She got a Govt. doc report for the abuse. My bro has lost his patience because my parents are taking advantage of the fact that my bro & SIL aren't taking any legal actions to safe gaurd the family reputation. Every 1 that they have gone to for advice about filing a complaint on my parents, they have been discouraged saying, since they are senior citizens & since there are a lot of false dowry cases now a days, my bro's or SIL's complaint will not stand even if the parents are the true abusers & childern/daughter-in-law are the actual victims.
I feel really bad & helpless for my bro & SIL. I saw first hand how corrupt the Indian justice system is. Can any one please advice on how my bro & mainly my SIL can get justice. More than for my bro, I feel for my SIL because I'm a women too.
