Beating Of ‘Disobedient’ Wife Leads To 3 Arrests: Deputies

RIVERVIEW, FL — An early Saturday morning distress call from a woman in Riverview to her parents in India kicked off an investigation by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office that ended with the arrest of three people.

According to the sheriff’s office, the 33-year-old woman told her parents she was being held and beaten by her own husband and his parents. After the woman called her parents, the sheriff’s office was notified. The caller warned the sheriff’s office the woman might be afraid to speak with law enforcement due to cultural traditions, the agency noted in an email.

Get the Bloomingdale Patch newsletter and alerts in your inbox. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.

Indeed, when deputies arrived at the home in the 9600 block of Greenbank Drive around 6:30 a.m. Sept. 2, they could tell people were home but they would not come to the door. A deputy continued to knock on the door, the email said.

The woman who made the call for help “suddenly attempted to open the door and screamed for the deputy to save her and her child,” the email said. “The deputy forced the door open and was immediately confronted by the victim’s husband, Devbir Kalsi, who attempted to push the door closed.”

The deputy forced his way in, the email said. While attempting to arrest Kalsi, 33, authorities say the man’s parents, Jasbir Kalsi, 67, and Bhupinder Kalsi, 61, confronted the deputy. As additional deputies arrived on the scene, they examined Devbir Kalsi’s wife and found she was “badly beaten and bruised over her entire body,” the email said. The couple’s 1-year-old daughter was found unharmed.

Deputies say there was “substantive evidence” of physical abuse witnessed on the wife that had “been ongoing for an extended period of time.”

Authorities say the investigation revealed that Devbir Kalsi “contacted his parents regarding his wife being disobedient and they came from India to help counsel and discipline her.” In addition to being beaten, deputies say the wife and the little girl were held against their will. At some point, a knife was held against the wife’s throat and her phone was taken from her so she could not call 911, the email added.

“All parties were determined to be foreign nationals of India,” the sheriff’s office said.

Devbir Kalsi was charged with false imprisonment, felony battery, child abuse and denying access to 911. Jasbir Kalsi was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon (knife), false imprisonment, child abuse and denying access to 911. Bhupinder Kalsi was charged with battery domestic violence and failure to report child abuse.

All three were booked into the Hillsborough County Jail.

The sheriff’s office said the Florida Abuse Hotline and federal immigration authorities were notified of the arrests. The wife, who is not being identified by Patch, and the little girl were given a safe place to stay, the email noted.

No further information is available at this time.

Keep up with what's happening by following Bloomingdale-Riverview Patch on Facebook.

Booking photos courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office