28-year-old MBA grad kills self over dowry harassment
An MBA graduate hanged herself from a ceiling fan at her east Delhi home after allegedly being harassed by her husband and in-laws for dowry, police said on Tuesday.
The suicide comes just days after a businessman’s daughter was burnt alive in west Delhi’s Vikaspuri for allegedly refusing to arrange ₹10 lakh that her husband had been demanding.
In her dying declaration, Parvinder Kaur told a magistrate that her husband and in-laws set her on fire when she visited their home in Vikaspuri to collect her son’s clothes, almost a fortnight after she was thrown out of there.
The victim in the latest case is 28-year-old Deepensha Sharma who held MBA and MCom degrees and was pursuing BEd as she wanted a teaching job at a government institute. She was the mother of a one-and-a-half year old daughter.
At the time of her marriage in November 2014, Deepensha was an assistant professor at a college in Greater Noida. “But her husband started suspecting her (character) and forced her to quit the job a few months after their marriage,” her father Rakesh Sharma said.
Her husband works with the technical team of a news channel. The couple lived with the husband’s parents in east Delhi’s Balbir Nagar.
According to her father, Deepensha was physically and mentally harassed for dowry ever since her marriage. “They would beat her if she refused to ask me for cash when they demanded it,” said Sharma, an LIC employee.
Deepensha’s husband allegedly refused to fund her education or provide money for her basic needs. “I would keep giving her ₹20,000-25,000 from time to time. The birth of her daughter around two years ago did not change her husband’s behaviour,” alleged Sharma.
On Rakshabandhan, Sharma again coughed up ₹12,000 for a small television set but Deepensha’s family was allegedly not happy with the amount.
On Monday evening, Sharma allegedly received a call from Deepensha’s in-laws that she had locked herself in a room and wasn’t opening the door. By the time Sharma reached there, she had already hanged herself from the ceiling fan using her chunni.
“The door was broken open in the presence of the woman’s father. It was a suicide. No suicide note has been found,” said Nupur Prasad, DCP (Shahdara).
She said that since the couple was married for less than seven years, as per law the inquiry into the death will be made by a magistrate. A case under IPC 304B (dowry death) is likely to be registered after that, Prasad added.
I would keep giving her (Deepensha Sharma) ₹20,00025,000 from time to time. The birth of her daughter around two years ago did not change her husband’s behaviour.