Lodhi Road ‘suicide’: Victim’s husband arrested, sister-in-law booked in dowry case

Two days after a 28-year-old woman was found dead outside government staff quarters in south Delhi’s Lodhi Colony, police have arrested her husband on Monday and booked him and his sister for dowry death and cruelty, officials aware of the case details said on Monday, adding that preliminary investigation suggests the woman died by suicide after allegedly facing sustained abuse and harassment by her in-laws

Two days after a 28-year-old woman was found dead outside government staff quarters in south Delhi’s Lodhi Colony, police have arrested her husband on Monday and booked him and his sister for dowry death and cruelty, officials aware of the case details said on Monday, adding that preliminary investigation suggests the woman died by suicide after allegedly facing sustained abuse and harassment by her in-laws.

In her complaint, the woman’s mother alleged that her daughter was subjected to repeated harassment after marriage because she wanted to continue working (Photo for representation)

Police officials aware of the case details said the woman, who married a 30-year-old sales executive from Chhattarpur on April 24, appeared to have jumped from the terrace of an NDMC residential building in Palika Kunj on Saturday evening.

They added that while investigators are yet to establish why she went to the location, CCTV footage and other evidence indicate she acted “of her own will” after allegedly facing pressure from her in-laws.

The woman’s family lives in Sangam Vihar, while her husband’s family resides in Pushp Vihar.

According to investigators, the woman left her office on Saturday evening but did not return either to her husband’s home or to her mother’s house. Instead, police said, she travelled by Metro to Lodhi Colony, walked to the NDMC staff quarters and allegedly jumped from the third-floor terrace. She succumbed to her injuries later that night.

Senior police officers said they mapped out the route the woman took on the day of the incident. “Instead of deboarding at Saket metro station, she got down at Lodhi Colony and went straight to the building. We still don’t know why she went there but it looks like she jumped of her own will due to the pressure and abuse from her in-laws,” said the officer, who asked not to be identified.

On Sunday, police initiated inquest proceedings as no suicide note or other evidence was recovered from the scene. Following allegations by the woman’s family, an FIR was registered at Lodhi Colony police station against her husband and sister-in-law under charges of dowry death and cruelty under BNS sections 80(2) (dowry death) and 85 (husband/relative subjecting woman to cruelty).

In her complaint, the woman’s mother alleged that her daughter was subjected to repeated harassment after marriage because she wanted to continue working.

“Before the wedding, my daughter had made it clear that she wanted to continue her job. But her husband asked her not to work and later created problems in both her domestic and professional life so that she would quit,” the FIR, accessed by HT, stated.

The complaint details four alleged instances of domestic violence and harassment. According to the FIR, the husband assaulted the woman on June 17 after she failed to answer his calls because her phone was on silent mode. It further alleges that on June 29, he beat her with a belt after expressing dissatisfaction with the food she had prepared.

The complainant also alleged that her daughter was prevented from meeting or speaking to her family. On July 3, she said she called her son-in-law’s father to complain that her daughter was being assaulted, pressured to conceive and prevented from working.

According to the FIR, after the father-in-law reprimanded his son over the phone, the husband allegedly abused his own father before telling the woman she should “only wash clothes and prepare meals and forget about work”. The complaint further alleges that the sister-in-law later called and threatened the victim’s mother.

The woman’s mother said her daughter remained determined to work because she had been the family’s sole breadwinner since her father’s death five years ago. “He kept demanding ₹10 lakh and a car from us. She somehow managed to rejoin work last week, but he again demanded that she hand over her entire salary to him,’ she alleged.