Late musician Wajid Khan's wife moves to HC against husband's family over property

Late music composer Wajid Khan's wife Kamalrukh has approached the Bombay high court seeking a permanent injunction against Khan's brother Sajid and his mother to prevent them from creating any third party rights on the assets and properties he left behind. In an order passed earlier this month, Justice Gautam Patel of the Bombay HC issued notices to Sajid Khan and his mother and directed them to file their replies to Kamalrukh's plea by April 21. As per Kamalrukh's pleas, Wajid Khan had made his will in 2012 in which he named her and their children as the only beneficiaries of all his assets and properties.

She has sought that the will be ratified by the high court. Besides the will probate petition, Kamalrukh also filed an application seeking interim reliefs including an order of permanent injunction restraining Wajid's mother and brother from alienating her or claiming third-party rights in the properties left behind by her late husband. Last year, Kamalrukh Khan had spoken went public, with the pressure she has faced throughout her marriage to convert her religion.  She shared a note,  about being harassed by her in-laws to convert to Islam. She has two children with Wajid -- a 16 years old daughter and a nine-year- old son. In her note, Kamalrukh said that she and Wajid were ‘college sweethearts’ who married under the Special Marriages Act that allowed them to wed while practising their own religions. However, after he and his family exerted pressure on her to change her religion, it caused a rift in her relationship, bringing them to the brink of divorce.

Talking to Times of India, Kamalrukh said that she wanted to highlight the trauma she went through in the 17 years of their marriage. “Life has brought me to a point where I need to fight for my children’s due inheritance as his family has usurped his assets post Wajid’s death. I am both father and mother to them, and in practical matters, always have been! My daughter is 16 years and my son is 9 years. I have to pay for their education and our upkeep. I work as a clinical hypnotherapist and our primary source of earning has been Wajid’s marital support. If that too is being snatched away (by those who haven’t bothered to keep in touch with me or my children for the past 7-8 years, on such unfair grounds, I need to fight back on every front. Also my reasons for speaking out is tied to an inherent sense of justice. No woman should have to face what I have faced during these 17 years of marriage,” she said.  Wajid Khan passed away last year of a cardiac arrest.