Gudiya

Lucknow, Jan. 13: Gudiya’s husbands, fighting for the custody of her one-year-old son, have made peace.

With a panchayat of ulemas (clerics) as witnesses, her first husband Arif yesterday agreed to hand over Matin to Taufiq, his biological father, after he promised to make a fixed deposit of Rs 30,000 for the child’s education.

In 2004, Gudiya ? who had married Taufiq after armyman Arif went missing during the Kargil war ? had been the subject of a tug-of-war between the two men after Arif returned.

The clerics of Kundali, a village in the Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, had sat to decide her fate. They “awarded” her to Arif under the glare of TV cameras.

Gudiya, who died early this month, could never really recover from the scars that the harrowing episode left on her mind.

Till Taufiq deposits Rs 30,000 in the bank, the panchayat has ruled that Matin will stay with Gudiya’s parents.

The village clerics had appointed a four-member committee to decide who would take little Matin home.

They asked the child who he wanted to go with. But the one-year-old stood in silence, only once responding to Arif’s affectionate call. For Matin, who has been staying with Arif, his biological father Taufiq is still a stranger.

However, Arif declared that he didn’t “want to create any more controversy and will abandon the claim. But I want the child’s future to be secure”.

When Taufiq agreed, he signed a stamp paper withdrawing from the race for the child’s custody.

Arief Kamal Farruki, a member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board and a senior cleric in Meerut, said he was happy with the decision.