A 32 year-old married woman died after she allegedly consumed some poisonous substance at her in-laws home in Phase-V of Mohali on Tuesday. While her In-laws claimed it to be a suicide, her kin alleged that she was murdered for dowry.
The brother of the deceased, Sanjay in his statement to police said that Seema (deceased) got married with Surinder Kumar in March 2011 and soon after her In-laws began to demand more dowry and harassed her several times.
Surinder, who is an NRI, went to Canada after one month of his marriage and soon he cut-off all contacts with his wife.
Father-in-law of Seema, Ram Pal said she was under stress for long time and on Tuesday morning she consumed some poisonous substance when she went to clean-up her room.
He told the police that she did not respond and was found lying unconscious on the floor in her room when the door was pushed open.
Seema was rushed to the civil hospital of Phase VI, Mohali where doctors referred her to Government Medical Collage and Hospital, Sector-32, where she succumbed during treatment.
Rajinder Kumar, Brother-in-law of Seema claimed that she was never pressurized to bring more dowry from her parents. “She remained in depression due to some personal reasons,” he said.
But her Brother Sanjay said, “It is a case of pre-planned, cold murder. She was continuously being harassed for dowry and she had been beaten up by her In-laws on previous occasions too. We had not been in contact for the past some time as they had asked her to bring more dowry from her home. But they were unsuccessful and took out their frustration on her.”
He alleged she was also kept without food for many days before her death. Sanjay claimed that Seema’s husband had also sent divorce papers from Canada.
“On the statement of brother of the deceased, a case has been registered against Father-in-law Ram Pal and her Brother-in-laws, Rajinder Kumar and Ram Kumar and further investigation will resume after the postmortem report of Seema Devi,” said Investigation Officer, Mulakhraj Singh, Police station Phase-I, Mohali.