Naval officer's wife accuses his superiors of wife swapping, harassment

After allegations of molestation and sexual harassment, a naval officer’s wife in Kochi has accused her husband and other senior officers in the Navy of indulging in wife swapping, and her husband being coerced his superiors to be a part of their activities. The former resident of the Kochi naval base has claimed that not only did she catch her husband in a compromising position with another senior officer’s wife, but she was told that she had to participate in their ritual of wife swapping if her husband had to retain his job. [caption id=“attachment_696099” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative image. AFP.[/caption] According to a report published in The Times of India, the 26-year-old woman who is an IIT graduate, who has lodged two formal complaints - one with the Kochi Police, the other with Delhi Police - said that ‘wife swapping’ was a common practice in several senior ranks of the Navy in India. TOI reported_:_ 

When asked how she could substantiate her allegations, Sumedha said, “I know what I have seen. There has been a complaint filed earlier about wife-swapping in 2011 on INS Dronacharya but the officers involved were posted out and the issue buried.”

The woman has claimed in a television interview that she can identify the other officcers involved in the case. A naval command officer confirmed that they have started to probe her allegations. Defence minister AK Antony has sought a report about the incident. However, a statement issued by the Navy states that the young woman took her personal frustrations out on her husband’s friends who had tried to help the couple sort their problems. “The wife of the officer has leveled unfair allegations against superior officers in her husband’s chain of command, their spouses and other officers who have interacted with her. These officers accompanied by their respective spouses had tried to unsuccessfully resolve the issues dogging the couple’s personal life in a bid to leverage the strength of the naval community bond. Unfortunately, the lady had resorted to such methods of dragging her estranged spouse’s colleagues into the vortex of their unhappy relationship in the past too in other units in which her husband has served. The couple was also sent to a marriage counselor under the aegis of the Navy Wives Welfare Association,” the statement said. However, the woman has denied going for any counselling. “I have never gone for any counselling  sessions. They are merely making statements to save each other,” she alleged.