A Melbourne man allegedly abandoned his wife in India because he suspected she had breast cancer which killed her mother.
28-year-old Saritha travelled to India with her husband- an Australian citizen- whom she married in May 2015, to attend her mother’s last rites after she died of cancer in September this year.
Sartiha tells SBS Punjabi that while she was mourning her mother's death, her husband returned to Australia with her passport without informing her.
Her husband then withdrew the partner visa sponsorship, leaving Saritha unable to travel back to Australia. She says her husband gave no indications that he was going to leave her.
Saritha came to know that her visa had been cancelled only when she approached the Australian High Commission in New Delhi with her new Indian passport for updating her visa information.
The Immigration Department normally gives the respondent a 28-day notice to respond to visa cancellation. But Saritha doesn’t know if she received any communication from the department as she claims her husband had changed her email password which her husband denies.
Saritha says her husband abandoned her because he suspected she also had cancer. She said her husband made her undergo repeated tests during an earlier visit to India.
“My husband took me for tests in Amritsar. When the tests did not show anything, he took me to another hospital in Jalandhar and told the staff there the first report wasn’t accurate.
“He would often tell me ‘you have cancer and you will also die of it',” Saritha told SBS Punjabi.
Saritha’s husband refuted the allegation that he left her for this reason. He claimed Saritha herself wanted to divorce him. He said he was in the process of settling the matter of their separation with Saritha’s family in India. He also denied he had brought Saritha’s passport with him and that he blocked her from accessing her email by changing the password of her email.
He said Saritha married him so that she could get permanent residency in Australia.
According to the law, sponsoring spouse can withdraw the sponsorship for the partner visa at any time before permanent residency is granted to the partner.
Dr. Manjula O’Connor, a psychiatrist and family counsellor, says normally the immigration department considers cases where there’s evidence of family violence. But she says Saritha may have to obtain a visitor visa and travel to Australia to be able to pursue her case.
Saritha says she has little hope of getting any justice in India though she has filed a police complaint there.
“I want to come to Australia and fight for my right,” she said.
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