Members of the Andhra Pradesh Mothers-in-law Protection Association perform a skit at Public Gardens on Monday.

HYDERABAD: It was a saas drama to the fore at Public Gardens in the city on Monday.

A ‘social forum’ which goes by the amusing nomenclature of Andhra Pradesh Mothers-in-Law Protection Association (APMPA) was launched on Monday to protect the rights of harassed mothers-in-law in the State.

The APMPA is the AP chapter of already launched All India Mothers- In-Law protection forum.

Several women, supported by their sons, against whom cases of dowry harassment and domestic violence are pending put in an appearance. The women had a common complaint — the IPC 498 A or the Dowry Harassment Act was being misused by their bahus. Venugopal, a private IT employee against whom one such case is pending said, “In our society, there is a preconceived notion that mothersin- law are bad. Finding the loopholes in the law, some wives are creating legal terrorism. The IPC 498 A is grossly misused for taking revenge or inciting hatred against the in-laws by the wives. According to statistics, 1,25,000 people are jailed because of complaints filed by daughters-inlaws and 98 per cent of them acquitted at a later stage. This shows how the Act is being manipulated with.” A member of the organisation and a mother-in-law, B Kowsalya shared her ‘bitter experience’. “My third son got married a few years back. After a while, the girl started beating him up and fought with the womenfolk of the house. She filed Sec 498 A against us. My son had to go to the police station frequently and we had to face a lot of mental trauma.” Another mother-in-law joined in to say that she lost her husband because of the “torture” they were subjected to as a result of the complaint filed by their daughter-in-law. She claimed that her daughter-in-law did not want to stay with the in-laws and so filed a police complaint.

Sheraz Khan, AP State President, United Women Front threw in his expert opinion that even if the son harasses his wife, the parents should not be made to suffer. “Even a mother- in-law is a woman and should be dealt with sensitively.” One software engineer said that after a bad marriage of five years, his wife filed a dowry case against him. “I was lodged in Central Jail and released after three days and tortured,” he said all the time shouting out his innocence.