Pregnant woman dies, in-laws booked
LUCKNOW: A day after a 32-yearold pregnant woman approached the PGI police station to lodge a complaint against her in-laws for allegedly demanding dowry, she died under mysterious conditions on Monday.
The matter came to light when police reached in time and stopped her in-laws from cremating her body without informing her parents, a police official said.
“We have arrested her husband and a member of the in-law’s family in connection with the death. The duo were booked for dowry death under section (304b ) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” said circle officer (CO) of the area, Beenu Singh, who reached the cremation ground and stopped the in-laws from cremating
the body.
“Suspecting foul play, a police team reached there in time and stopped the cremation. Her body has been sent for postmortem examination,” she said.
Meanwhile, mother of the woman (a widow) in her complaint to the police, accused the in-laws for her death and the police for not intervening into the matter in time.
“My six-month pregnant daughter was being harassed by her in-laws for dowry. They refused to pay for her medicines and demanding ₹2 Lakh as dowry,” she alleged.
“We approached the police for help, but they did nothing. The
police refused to register our complaint and asked us to return home,” she said.
According to locals, the woman had married to a man of Vrindavan Yojna in PGI area of Lucknow on May 13 this year. This was her second marriage after the death of her first husband and she had a 10-month-old daughter from the first marriage.
“Few months after her second marriage, the relationship turned sour and the in-laws and her husband started harassing her. She was not given food for days to eat,” reads the complaint submitted by her mother to the police.
Things turned worse when the woman fell on the floor this month complicating her condition. “In-laws refused to pay for medicine and started harassing my daughter to bring ₹2 lakh as dowry. When I learnt about her sufferings we planned to approach the police,” said the mother.
“We reached Telibagh police outpost on Saturday to lodge a complaint, but in vain. The next day, we reached PGI police station, even there the officials refused to accept our complaint and asked us to wait. We waited for over four hours but we returned home empty handed,” the deceased’s mother said.
Meanwhile, the SSP Kalanidhi Naithani suspended the PGI SHO, Ashok Kumar Saroj while outpost in-charge Ashutosh sent to the police lines, for failing to register complaint of the pregnant woman.
“The suspension was made on the report submitted by the CO regarding their dereliction of duty. Inspector Anjani Kumar Pandey has been made the new SHO of PGI,” said the SSP.