Converted woman commits suicide

CHENNAI: Tension prevailed at the Chrompet Government Hospital on Thursday when two families of different religions argued over the custody of the body of a woman who reportedly committed suicide. Police later intervened and helped reach a compromise that the parents of the deceased would first take her body for their religious rites and then hand it over to the husband of the woman.Police said Rashidha (26) allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself at her home on Raghavendra Street in Madipakkam on Tuesday night after a tiff with her husband Mohammad Sadiq Hasan (30), who works in an IT company. Rashidha and Hasan, belonging to different religions, fell in love in 2004 when they were colleagues at an IT firm and later got married according to Islamic law. The woman converted to Islam and adopted the name Rashidha.On Thursday, her parents  Rajan and Gowri of Balayya Garden in Madipakkam,  relatives, and the family of Hasan - quarreled over their rights over her body as both the families wanted to peform the final rites according to their religious customs. Rashidha reportedly committed suicide after a quarrel with her husband on Tuesday after Hasan left their two-year-old son at his parents’ house at Perambur. The couple themselves had lived in Perambur with Hasan’s parents initially after their marriage as the woman’s parents reportedly did not approve of the marriage. Ten days ago, Hasan and Rashidha, along with their son, shifted to  Madipakkam. On Tuesday, they visited Hasan’s parents, who had asked them to leave their son with them overnight.Later, Rashidha and Hasan fought over this. Rashidha then threatened to commit suicide and locked herself up in a room. WhenHasan knocked on the door and after sometime peeped in through the window, he saw her hanging. When Express contacted Rashidha’s parents, they hung up the phone abruptly saying, “Everything is over. What else is there to say?”