In a bizarre incident, a 26-year-old woman hanged herself to death at her Juhu-Santa Cruz residence in north-west Mumbai on Wednesday night, even as her newly-wed husband watched it live on a webcam.
Identifying the deceased woman as Shobhana Surti, an employee in a software company, the police said on Thursday that she took the extreme step after an altercation she had with her boyfriend Swapnil Surve on Tuesday.
According to Police, Shobhana and Surti had entered into a wedlock secretly at a temple a week back, despite opposition from Surve’s family on the ground that the girl came belonged to a different caste. The couple had registered their marriage and obtained a marriage certificate from the authorities concerned.
In his statement to the police, Surve claimed that on the fateful evening he and Shobhana were live-chatting via Skype, when he saw her hang herself to death despite his having persuaded her against taking the extreme step in a manner she did.
“In his statement, Surve claimed that Shobhana was desperate to meet him the same night. Surve expressed his inability to meet her in the night, but assured her that he would meet her the following day. However, Shobhana insisted that come what may she wanted to meet him the same night,” senior police inspector AS Bhagat told media persons here.
During the course of her conversation with Surve, Shobhana tied her dupatta on the ceiling fan of her room of her Juhu residence at suburban Santacruz and hanged herself, leaving her newly-wed husband-cum-boy friend shell shocked.
A helpless Surve was reportedly speaking to Shobhana all through, even as the tragic event unfolded in front of his own eyes.
Surve immediately called Shobana’s younger sister, who was at a friend’s house, on her cell-phone and told her rush home, saying that something was amiss there.
“By the time her sister reached, Shobana had already died. Her parents, who were in Surat at the time of the incident, were informed about the incident. They returned to Mumbai soon afterwards,” Bhagat said.
According to Bhagat, the police are in the process of registering a case of suicide. “We are also recording the statements of the deceased woman. We have sent the body for a postmortem,” the police officer said.
Meanwhile, the police have recovered laptops of both Shobana and Surve, the deceased woman’s cell-phone and the certificate authenticating the secret marriage between the couple at a Ram Mandir at Bandra in north-west Mumbai.