A 26-year-old woman allegedly died by suicide in Ambernath on Tuesday after being subjected to relentless physical and mental harassment by her husband and in-laws over her demand for dowry.
Following the incident, Shivaji Nagar police in Ambernath arrested her husband Dr Nitin Telkar, mother-in-law Chhaya Telkar and brother-in-law on charges of dowry harassment and abetment to suicide. Her husband is a BHMS doctor and practices in Ulhasnagar.
The deceased, identified as Vishaka Telkar, was a commerce graduate from Pune. She tied the knot with Dr. Nitin Telkar on April 30 in an arranged marriage. According to her family, no dowry was given to the groom’s family at the time of the wedding. However, soon after the marriage, her husband and his in-laws started demanding fifty grams of gold from her parents.
In addition to dowry demands, the family allegedly had deep suspicions about Vishakha’s character and subjected her to extreme surveillance and isolation. Her husband went so far as to install surveillance cameras inside the house to monitor her movements and prevent her from interacting with neighbors. On Sunday, when Vishakha was seen talking to a neighboring woman, she was brutally beaten by her husband and his in-laws.
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Distressed by the attack, Vishaka phoned her parents in Pune to narrate her ordeal. While her parents were planning to travel from Pune to Ambernath to intervene and discuss the matter with her in-laws, Vishaka, unable to bear the constant humiliation and torture, ended her life on Tuesday.
“The accused’s family routinely harassed the deceased physically and mentally as she did not receive any gifts during the wedding. Recently, they started demanding 50 grams of gold as dowry, which her father, an auto rickshaw driver in Pune, could not provide. We have arrested the three accused. They will be produced before the court today,” Ramesh Patil, senior police inspector of Shivaji Nagar police station, told HT.
Discussing suicides can be triggering for some. However, suicides can be prevented. Some of the major helpline numbers for suicide prevention in India are 011-23389090 from Soumyatri (Delhi based) and 044-24640050 from Sneha Foundation (Chennai based).
