Indian Navy lieutenant's wife 'forced into wife-swapping parties'
An Indian Navy lieutenant's wife has alleged she was forced into wife-swapping by her husband and senior officers at their base in Cochin.
Up to eight officers, including a commodore, and their wives have been accused and are now under police investigation.
According to the woman, her husband had taken her to a number of naval social functions where he had forced her to have sex with his fellow officers. She alleges that some of the officers and their wives had also put pressure on her and later tried to stop her complaining to police.
The Indian Navy has denied her claims but the investigation is the latest in a series of scandals to embarrass its senior officers. In 2005, three commanders were sacked for leaking defence procurement secrets from its war room and a commodore involved in a £1.5 billion deal to buy a Russian aircraft carrier was sacked in 2011 after pictures of him in bed with a suspected 'honeytrap' were sent to Indian defence headquarters.
In this latest controversy, the lieutenant's wife complained to both the police and the Naval Chief of Staff that her husband and senior officers had sexually abused her. She said the pressure to have sex with fellow officers began after her husband and his family started to harass her to pay them more money in dowry.
Navy spokesman Commander P.V.S Satish denied the allegations and said they were unfair. The victim had been involved in a series of domestic rows with her husband and had later extended her allegations to a number of officers and their wives who had simply sought to mediate between them, he alleged.
"We function as a community in the armed forces. There was some interaction and attempts to mediate the domestic discord. Unfortunately the individual has gone ahead and implicated everybody who has tried to mediate between her and husband, not only the men but all the ladies. Wife swapping is a bit of an extrapolation."
No comments: