A minor miscommunication over the phone set off a chain of extraordinary events for a railway employee in India, sparking a 12-year saga of legal and personal consequences that ultimately led to a divorce.
The station master’s troubles began when, during a shift in the city of Visakhapatnam in southern Andhra Pradesh state, he engaged in a phone conversation with his wife, reported the Times of India (TOI), without identifying the individual by his name.
Ending the call in frustration, he said, “We’ll talk at home, OK?” But, with his work microphone inadvertently left on, the phrase was overheard by a colleague, who mistook it as clearance to dispatch a freight train down a restricted track into an insurgency-affected territory.
This error, though resulting in no physical accident, breached night-time restrictions and caused substantial financial damage to Indian Railways, reportedly amounting to Rs 30m (£270,000).
Facing suspension for the oversight, the station master saw his already strained marriage further unravel. According to TOI, the marriage had been troubled for years, partly due to his wife’s lingering emotional connection to an ex-partner, which frequently strained relations at home.
Despite attempts to mend their differences, the suspension proved to be a breaking point, prompting him to file for divorce.
In response, his wife filed a counter-complaint under Indian laws, accusing him and his family of cruelty and harassment. She also moved the Supreme Court, requesting that the divorce case be transferred from Visakhapatnam to Durg in the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh, where her family resided.
Over the next several years, the case went through multiple courts, with her accusations and allegations of infidelity and dowry demands creating a prolonged legal entanglement.
The case reached the Chhattisgarh High Court, which reviewed evidence and deemed the wife’s claims of harassment unfounded.
The division bench of Justice Rajani Dubey and Justice Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal highlighted that her ongoing communication with an ex-lover and the argument that led to the costly “OK” incident amounted to mental cruelty towards her husband, reported TOI.
After a thorough review, the High Court overturned an earlier family court ruling, finally granting the station master a divorce.
