National kabbadi player Rohit Kumar, family missing after wife’s suicide

National kabaddi player Rohit Kumar and his family are missing since the suicide of the sportsman’s wife Lalita Dabas on Monday night, prompting the police to track down the accused against whom a case of dowry death has been registered.

National kabaddi player Rohit Kumar and his family have been missing since the suicide of the sportsman’s wife Lalita Dabas on Monday night, prompting the police to track down the accused against whom a case of dowry death has been registered.

People gather after Lalita (inset), wife of national level kabaddi player Rohit Kumar was found hanging at her home in Nangloi, New Delhi on October 17, 2016. (PTI)

The 26-year-old player was in Mumbai when Lalita, two years elder to him, hung herself from a ceiling fan in her west Delhi home around 7:30 pm on Monday. She had left a suicide note and two-and-a-half-hour voice message that alleged her in-laws of harassing her. Lalita was living in a Nangaloi apartment, having left her husband recently after their marriage in March.

Read | Pro-kabbadi player’s wife kills self, leaves 2-hour long voice message on mobile

Kumar and his family, who live in outer Delhi, have since been evading the law, and have failed to appear before the investigators.

Police said on Tuesday that the Nangaloi station officials formed two teams to locate the accused and book them. All mobile numbers of Kumar’s family were switched off, and their Kanjhawala residence was found locked.

One of the teams is enquiring with Kumar’s neighbours to trace the accused. Investigators said they are in touch with some of Kumar’s relatives and friends, but they too were clueless about the family’s whereabouts.

Vijay Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (west), said Kumar has gone missing from his Mumbai address as well and has switched off his mobile phone. “We need to find them to investigate the case. As of now, they are absconding,” he added.

A case of “dowry death” and “subjecting a woman to cruelty by her husband and in-laws with common intention” was registered on Tuesday against Kumar and his family.

The FIR was registered after the police recovered a suicide note Dabas left in her track pant pocket and two voice messages — one was two hours long; the other 22 minutes — which were in her mobile phones. Both the note and the audio clips allegedly accused Kumar and his family members of torturing her for dowry and a share in her father’s property.