This is about the battle of a lone woman, who had been driven out by her husband after being tortured physically.

Her husband claimed that she had married him suppressing the fact of an earlier marriage. Her own family, too, refused any help. The woman ran from pillar to post, collecting documents to prove that the allegations made against her were based on errors.

On Thursday, the woman came to meet her lawyer, Uttam Majumdar. He, too, realised what an ordeal she had been through in her quest to prove her innocence.

Suvra Roy Chowdhury of Chinsurah, in Hooghly, married Chandra Sekhar Bhattacharya of Malda in 1989. Five years later, Chandra Sekhar, apparently, came to know that earlier, Suvra had married Debabrata Banerjee of Chinsurah, but had not told him about it.

Though Suvra denied any earlier court marriage, Chandra Sekhar did not believe her and started torturing her. Unable to bear the mental and physical abuse, Suvra was forced to leave her husband and return home.

Her family, too, started accusing her of having married Debabrata on the sly. Depressed, Suvra moved a petition before the chief judicial magistrate of Hooghly, who ordered Chandra Sekhar to pay Suvra Rs 1,000 a month as maintenance.

Against this order, Chandra Sekhar moved an appeal in Calcutta High Court and furnished several documents, including the certified copy of the marriage registration of Suvra and Debabrata.

He also filed a divorce suit against Suvra. Justice P.N. Sinha of Calcutta High Court, after seeing the marriage registration certificate, set aside the order of the Hooghly chief judicial magistrate.

Suvra was, thereafter, greatly inconvenienced. But she did not lose confidence. She managed to get hold of a photocopy of the marriage certificate, which her husband had produced before the court, and started her own investigations.

The woman went around looking for evidence and Suvra came to know that the certificate was actually that of another Suvra Roy Chowdhury of Chinsurah, who had married a Debabrata Banerjee of the same area in 1988. That Suvra, too, got a separation from her husband in 1992, and she finally died in 1997. Petitioner Suvra managed to obtain a copy of the death certificate of her namesake.

“After getting hold of the documents, my client wants to find out the person who had misled her husband by supplying the fake documents,” said Suvra’s lawyer.