Bengaluru: A 24-year-old woman has sought a divorce after her husband turned a commercial sex worker following job loss due to COVID-19 pandemic last year.
Despite intervention by Bengaluru Police’s Vanitha Sahayavani (women’s helpline) via extensive counselling sessions, the couple failed to bury the hatchet and are set to part ways by mutual consent.
For Bhavesh and Smriti (names changed), it was love at first sight. The duo met at the office canteen of their BPO here in mid-2017. They got married in 2019 and rented a house in Subramanyanagar.
Bhavesh, 27, lost his job and started looking for opportunities. With no jobs in sight, he took up sex work. “A few months later, his wife noticed something unusual as he was extremely engaged with his laptop and mobile phone, and started making untimely and unexplained visits to places about which he wouldn’t discuss in detail with her,” senior counsellor at Vanitha Sahayavani, BS Saraswathi was quoted as saying by The Times of India. Saraswathi counselled the couple in February.
With growing suspicion, Smirti took the help of her techie brother to crack the password and open Bhavesh’s laptop and found a folder with graphic photos.
“She found a secret folder containing numerous nude photos of her husband and selfies of semi-naked women unknown to her. She discovered he was a male escort charging Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 per hour and had numerous clients in the city,” the counsellor was quoted as saying by the national daily.
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