Industrialist found dead in Delhi home

A week after filing a dowry harassment complaint against her in-laws, Akanksha Rathi, director of Indore-based company Rathi Iron and Steel Industries Limited (RISIL), was found dead at her Dwarka house on October 23, police said on Monday. HT reports.

A week after filing a dowry harassment complaint against her in-laws, Akanksha Rathi, director of Indore-based company Rathi Iron and Steel Industries Limited (RISIL), was found dead at her Dwarka house on October 23, police said on Monday.

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With her movie-star looks, foreign degree and uber-cool designer handbags, Akanksha was known for lending a much-needed 'wow factor' to local business, especially the steel sector - traditionally a male bastion.

The Ivy League graduate arrived in Indore to set up RISIL with her husband Aniruddha in 2004-05.

Akanksha, who received the 'Outstanding Entrepreneurship Award-2009' at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards, also penned a column on fashion for the Hindustan Times during 2009-10.

Police investigating Akanksha's death said that the 32-year-old may have strangulated herself with a chunni.

However, cops are also looking at drug overdose as a possible cause of death.

"The body was found at her father's house in Sansad Vihar society in Dwarka sector 3," a police officer said.

Sources said she came to Delhi from Indore after her husband died of a heart attack on September 4.

"Rathi had lodged a case of dowry harassment against her in-laws and three other members of her husband's family at the Mahila Thana on October 16. We were investigating the case…it is shocking that she committed suicide while the investigation was underway," said DIG Indore A Sai Manohar.

A Mahila Thana team of Indore police was sent to Delhi on Monday to gather more details regarding the case.

Delhi Police also claimed she had been undergoing treatment for depression for the past three years.

"Her father told us that she was depressed and had come to Delhi after her husband's death. At the time of suicide, her mother was in Haridwar and her father and a domestic help were present in the house," the officer said.

Though the police are treating it as a case of suicide, they will also probe other angles till they receive the postmortem report.

According to media reports quoting Sunita Singh, the victim's maternal aunt, her in-laws were not happy with her marriage to their son.

Singh alleged that days after her husband's death, Akanksha came from Indore to her residence in Delhi's Malviya Nagar, but was turned away by her in-laws. It was then that she moved to Dwarka.

Singh further claimed that after her husband's illness, Akanksha was handling the Indore unit all by herself.

Sources also said that in 2008, Aniruddha had demanded a business separation from his parents.