In the name of horn

THE CUNUPIA police have sent a clear message to all husbands that they are now free to get into a rage, batter their wives and destroy their in-laws’ property if they believe they are getting “horned.” This is the disturbing conclusion we must draw from the decision of the police not to charge Andy Chattergoonsingh after his wife, Sandra, and her parents, Mr and Mrs Premchand Ajoda of Billy Hammond Road, had reported his violent and destructive rampage to officers at the Cunupia Station. Amazingly enough, one constable told Ajoda: “Well, if the man getting horn you must expect him to behave that way.” The response of the Cunupia police to the plight of this battered wife and her distraught parents is not only an absurd example of how not to protect and serve but it also illustrates the traditional attitude of the police who tend to to dismiss or make light of serious reports of domestic violence.

The belief that he may be getting “horned” is no reason whatever for Chattergoonsingh’s attack on his wife and the home of her parents. And the painful injuries he inflicted on her and the damage he did to Ajodha’s house are so serious that he should have been promptly arrested and charged. There was also the need to impress upon Chattergoonsingh and to all other violence-prone husbands that such abusive behaviour would not be condoned and, in fact, would incur the full force of the law. Instead of providing some form of protection to Sandra Chattergoonsingh and her parents, who say they now fear for their lives, the Cunupia police, in fact, have virtually accepted the aggressive conduct of this angry husband and, by sympathising with his “horned” suspicions, they may well have given him some form of encouragement to continue his abuse. It appears that, after 12 years of marriage, Sandra Chattergoonsingh and her husband were having problems as a result of which she went back to her parents’ home.

On Saturday 21 September, after her parents had left for the grocery, her husband came by and accused her of being involved with another man. When she told Chattergoonsingh that she did not want him anymore, he became angry and violent. She said he broke the windows and doors of the house. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her outside, hitting and kicking her. She added that he poured gasoline in the house but stopped short of setting it ablaze when their 10-year-old son refused to come out. After hearing all of this from Sandra and her parents, the Cunupia police spoke to Chattergoonsingh who admitted most of it but excused himself by claiming that his wife was “horning” him. A man who went berserk, battered his estranged wife, damaged her parents home, almost set it on fire, in fact, tells the police afterwards he did all that because he felt he was getting “horned.” And what do the police do?

They offer him their understanding and their sympathies. The poor man was so distressed over the “horn” that he could not control himself. Could there be a better excuse for violence? Whatever were the problems of the Chattergoonsingh marriage we do not know, but clearly it had come to an end. Mrs Chattergoonsingh had apparently decided that enough was enough and she no longer wanted any part of it. Since the institution began, marriages all over the civilised world have been failing like this. And the parties should be mature enough to recognise their irreconcilable differences and move on with their lives. The TT police apparently have a different idea about this. If the rejected husband wants to terrorise his estranged wife and her family, it’s really no big thing. He getting horn, isn’t he?