Well, that’s one way of doing it. And it’s one others can learn from. Read about it here (Mumbai Mirror, 8/7/10).
It seems that there was a bitter, two-year divorce and custody battle going on in Mumbai on India’s west coast. Purushottam Mahajan, 44 and his wife Palavi were in conflict over the custody of their 11-year-old son. Purushottam had, for many years, told his friends about the domestic violence he endured at the hands of his wife, but they never believed him. Neither, apparently, did the police.
So Purushottam took matters into his own hands. He secretly installed concealed video cameras in his house and the resulting evidence was enough to convince his wife’s attorney that continuing the custody battle was no longer such a good idea. Purushottam now has custody of his son.
The videos were put up on YouTube last year, according to the article
by an NGO to show how law was heavily loaded against men in cases of marital discord…
The camera captured everything that went on in the house, including Purushottam’s physical torture, for three months. What eventually went up on YouTube was an edited 30-minute video. The video that has no sound, shows Pallavi slapping and kicking Purushottam.
Armed with that evidence plus evidence he had meticulously procured of his wife’s treatment of their son, and a little legal study, Purushottam went to court and won.
During the two-year battle, Purushottam says he went through a lot. “I lost a job in a multi-national bank because cops would be constantly calling me. But I had decided, I would fight till the end as I loved Aum (their son) more than anything else. When I saw my lawyer was not arguing the case properly, I read law books and argued my case without a lawyer.”