EX Dur-barred from her home

EX Dur-barred from her home

Music director refuses to pay EMI for house he bought together with his ex-wife; she now faces eviction

K A Dodhiya

Farzana Durbar, the estranged wife of music director Ismail Durbar of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas fame, thinks she has a strong case for saying bairi piya badaa bedardi.

In a matter that will find resonance with several separated couples in the city, Farzana has asked the family court in Bandra to issue instructions to her ex-husband to pay the equated monthly instalment of Rs 68,166 for a Rs 80 lakh loan taken for their 1,100 sq ft, two BHK flat at Superstar, Perry Road, Bandra, where she now lives alone.

Durbar has stopped paying the EMI since December 2005, she has said in her petition. As a result, the HSBC bank has slapped a notice asking her to pay up the dues in 60 days, failing which they will attach the flat.

Farzana has alleged that Durbar is deliberately not paying the EMI as he wants her to leave the flat. She, her parents and brothers are in no position to pay the instalments, she has said.

The loan was obtained in the name of both Farzana and Ismail in 2003, when the two were together, the petition says. After their divorce in May 2005, Farzana lost custody of her four children but was allowed to stay in the 'matrimonial flat.' In an out-of-court settlement over alimony, Durbar agreed to pay the EMI but abruptly stopped payment.

Farzana has claimed in the petition that she has received several threat calls from unknown persons asking her to vacate the house. On February 3, she said, four unidentified persons came to the flat and after hurling abuses, asked her to pack up and leave. If she didn't, she would be thrown out soon, they threatened her, she said. She has filed a complaint with Bandra police in this regard.

Farzana said she had tried to get in touch with Durbar to tell him about the bank notice "but he refused to answer the phone." His "motive" was clear to her, she said, when she spoke to his second wife Ayesha over the telephone.

"I am unable to do anything as Ismail is a public figure and no one is ready to believe that a celebrity like him can mete out such inhuman treatment to his own wife who has sacrificed her youth for him.

Ismail's intention is clear -- he wants possession of the flat so he can rent it and get additional income at the cost of humiliating me,'' her petition alleges, adding that Ismail should relinquish his rights of 50 per cent and make her absolute owner of the flat.

The court has admitted the petition and the matter will come up for hearing on April 12.

Durbar admitted to this paper that he had stopped paying the EMI but said he did not want to comment any further on a personal matter.