Ludhiana: Man, in-laws booked for wife’s dowry death

A man, his mother and two relatives have been booked for dowry death after his 22-year-old wife died under mysterious circumstances on Saturday

A man, his mother and two relatives have been booked for dowry death after his 22-year-old wife died under mysterious circumstances on Saturday.

Muskaan, the victim.

Based on the statement of Sangeeta, the mother of the victim, Muskaan, an FIR has been lodged against Amit Birla of Dr Ambedkar Nagar, Model Town, who works at a salon in Mumbai; his mother Urmila and two relatives Munish of Ambala and Deepak of Dashmesh Nagar.

Sangeeta said her daughter had married Amit in November 2020. The couple have a 10-month-old son. She added that soon after the marriage, the accused started harassing her daughter for the dowry so that they can open a salon for Amit.

Sangeeta said she is a Class-4 employee with Ludhiana municipal corporation (MC) and her husband is a labourer. She added that they have limited resources and could not fulfil the demands of her daughter’s in-laws. Due to the constant harassment, her daughter had come back to live at her maternal home 10 months ago and also filed a complaint against her in-laws, said Sangeeta.

She added that after her in-laws promised not to harass her, Muskaan went back to her live at her husband’s house in November. “On Saturday evening, Urmila called and told me that Muskan had consumed poison and they were taking her to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, my daughter’s in-laws told us that she ended her life by hanging herself,” she added. Sangeeta alleged that the accused had thrashed Muskan to death and hung her body from a ceiling fan to make it look like a suicide.

Jaswinder, the victim’s father, said his daughter’s body has multiple injuries, which suggests that she was assaulted.

Sub-inspector Gurshinder Kaur, station house officer (SHO) at Model Town police station, said that a case has been registered against the accused under Section 304-B (dowry death) of Indian Penal Code and a hunt is on for their arrest.