The Dirty Secrets of Indian Navy: Wife Swapping

Sumedha was working for the Multinational firm Morgan Stanley. Last year she quit her job to marry an Lieutenant Commander in Indian Navy posted at Kochi Naval Base.

He dreams shattered within months after marriage when she discovered the dark side of Naval Glamour. At one of the Officer’s party, she discovered her husband in compromising position with the wife of a Senior Officer.

It did not take too long for her to realize what mess she was trapped in it as she was allegedly tortured by other officers including her husband, after she refused to take part in wife swapping game also known as Swinging.

Her Husband later confessed to her about the whole episode but asked her to take part in the Swinging Game, else he would lose the job.

According to Sumedha, her husband had taken her to a number of naval social functions where he had forced her to have sex with his fellow officers. She alleges that some of the officers and their wives had also put pressure on her and later tried to stop her complaining to police.

She has complained to both the police and the Naval Chief of Staff that her husband and senior officers had sexually abused her. She said the pressure to have sex with fellow officers began after her husband and his family started to harass her to pay them more money in dowry.

Sumedha, who is preparing for her civil services, said 20-30% of naval officers indulged in wife-swapping. “There are parties every day and the women wear very revealing, almost vulgar clothes. I found later that wife-swapping was common there,” she said

However, there is  other side of the story also. According to Navy Spokesperson P.V.S Satish, the victim was involved in a series of domestic rows with her husband and had later extended her allegations to a number of officers and their wives who had simply sought to mediate between them.

“We function as a community in the armed forces. There was some interaction and attempts to mediate the domestic discord. Unfortunately the individual has gone ahead and implicated everybody who has tried to mediate between her and husband, not only the men but all the ladies. Wife swapping is a bit of an extrapolation.”

There have been allegations that she was mentally unstable, but Sumedha says that she knows the truth