MUMBAI: A magistrate’s court in the city has held that a man repeatedly stealing money from his daughter-inlaw’s purse to buy alcohol amounts to economic domestic violence. The observation came while directing a 40year-old Lalbaug man to pay Rs 21.5 lakh in rent and maintenance arrears to his estranged wife and minor daughter, after the court found him and his family responsible for sustained domestic abuse, including financial manipulation and sexual harassment.Judicial magistrate first class JR Mulani also addressed allegations against the woman’s brother-in-law, noting that she had “boldly narrated” harassment in the presence of her father-inlaw, including attempts to force physical relations, which the court said constituted “serious and grave acts of domestic violence.”The magistrate concluded the woman faced repeated mental and economic abuse from her husband and inlaws. The husband’s regular drinking, threats and verbal abuse, efforts to force her to quit her job, and the mortgaging of her gold ornaments, leaving her to repay a Rs 2-lakh debt were treated as domestic violence.The court further found that the father-in-law’s thefts for alcohol, along with the motherin-law’s mental harassment, demands for the woman’s earnings, and coercion to buy a refrigerator, clearly amounted to economic and mental domestic violence.The court ordered the husband to pay monthly maintenance of Rs 7,000 to the woman and Rs 5,000 to their minor daughter, plus Rs 5,000 towards house rent. These amounts were calculated retrospectively from February 24, 2016. The man was also directed to pay Rs 50,000 in legal costs, and the court issued a protection order restraining the family from committing further acts of domestic violence.The couple met at their workplace, a credit card company, in 2007 and married in 2012. According to the woman, problems began soon after marriage when her husband pressured her to leave her job, began drinking heavily, and abused her. When she became pregnant, he allegedly demanded an abortion, claiming he could not manage expenses. She refused, and their daughter was born in 2013.The abuse escalated when her brotherin-law attempted to establish physical relations with her late at night while he was intoxicated and her father-inlaw was asleep nearby.In March 2014, she left the matrimonial home and moved in with her brother. Her husband later filed for divorce. She filed her domestic violence application on February 24, 2016. Although interim maintenance was granted in 2017, the husband allegedly failed to pay regularly, and she filed an NC complaint for criminal intimidation in 2018.The husband denied the allegations in writing, but the respondents did not appear to cross-examine her or lead evidence. The court proceeded without their evidence on August 2, 2025, noting her sworn testimony remained unchallenged and there was no reason to disbelieve it.