KEY POINTS
- The couple was married in 2009 and have two kids together
- The woman’s obsession with cleanliness grew after the birth of their first son
- A counsellor termed her obsession with cleanliness “normal”
A man in India is seeking a divorce from his wife after she washed his laptop and mobile phone with detergent.
The incident took place in Bengaluru, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The wife allegedly has obsessive-compulsive disorder– a mental condition that triggers the urge to perform some actions repeatedly to overcome fear. In her case, she has an obsession with cleanliness, the Times of India reported.
Alongside cleaning the laptop and the phone, the 35-year-old woman allegedly also kept her husband and two children away from the home for 30 days to “deep clean” the house after her mother passed away, the publication reported.
The husband, whose name wasn’t revealed, reportedly tried meditation to maintain his cool but the efforts failed. The man got so irked by his wife’s hygiene habits that he decided to approach the cops.
The couple was married in 2009 and went to the U.K. in connection with the husband’s job. BS Saraswati, senior counsel at Bengaluru City Police, told JS News-Times that the situation started deteriorating after the woman gave birth to their first son. The woman would make her husband wash his shoes, clothes, and cell phone every time he returned home from work.
Following this, the couple returned from the U.K. They underwent family counseling sessions and the situation started getting better. The couple welcomed their second son after this. The woman’s OCD took a turn for the worse in the wake of the pandemic. She allegedly started washing everything in the house, including spoons, floormats, and even home appliances.
In his complaint, the husband stated that the woman bathes more than six times a day and even has one specific soap to “clean her bathing soap,” Saraswathi told The Times of India.
“The tipping point came for him recently after she forced her children to wash their school uniforms, shoes, and bags after they returned home every day,” Saraswathi told the outlet. The children are now aged 9 and 11.
Cops made the woman undergo three counseling sessions but they went in vain. Speculating this to be a case of OCD, the counselor suggested the woman get psychological help. The counselor, however, branded the woman’s hygiene habits “normal.”
The woman plans to lodge a police complaint against the husband for harassing her by terming her behaviour abnormal.
