Man held for driving wife to suicide

MUMBAI: The Sahar police on Friday arrested an Andheri resident for allegedly abusing his 24-year-old wife to the point of driving her to suicide.

The accused has been identified as Satish Bansode, a resident of Sahar village in Andheri. Bansode was arrested after his wife Sandhya died by suicide in their residence on Thursday. “Her brother-in-law informed her father Datta Shirsath about her death. He approached us on Thursday night to register a complaint,” said an officer with the Sahar police station.

According to Shirsath’s statement to the police, Sandhya used to live with her parents and two brothers in Pune till 2016. In February 2016, Sandhya went missing. In November 2017, the police found that she had married Bansode, and that the couple had a daughter. As Sandhya seemed to be happily married, Shirsath gave his blessings and the couple shifted to Mumbai.

“The marriage was a happy one till 2018, but after that Bansode started harassing Sandhya, asking her to get money from us. For Sandhya’s sake, we started paying whatever we could,” Shirsath, who works as a security guard, has told the police in his statement.

He has further said that Bansode’s behaviour got progressively worse and even the birth of a second child – a son – in 2021 did nothing to change the situation. Bansode allegedly started drinking regularly and abusing Sandhya. “On Wednesday, Sandhya called up her brother to tell him that Bansode was harassing her again. He asked her to leave for Pune , but she refused,” the officer said.

“We have arrested Bansode and charged him with cruelty by husband for dowry and abetment to suicide,” said senior inspector Sanjay Govilkar.