She made peace with torture by husband, in-laws

Shards of iron from a broken grille, a locked house smelling of death and a throng of baffled neighbours are all that remain of what used to be a quiet family of four, which had been among them for two years. Jatin Anand reports.

Shards of iron from a broken grille, a locked house smelling of death and a throng of baffled neighbours are all that remain of what used to be a quiet family of four, which had been among them for two years.

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While most said they hadn’t seen it coming, others claimed to have sensed something had gone irretrievably wrong between Vinita Katara, 27, and her nursing attendant husband, Deepak, two to three days ago.

“She always used to be at home and used to be among the first customers I would have every day,” said Sudarshan, 25, a milk vendor who operates a small shop below the couple’s flat at Mehrauli’s Deluxe Apartments.

But something, according to Sudarshan, hadn’t been right since the last couple of days. “She hadn’t stepped out as much as all of us were used to seeing her for the last two days. We didn’t know it was something so wrong that she would do something like this,” he said.

Mother to two apparently well-behaved and quiet children, Vinita, according to her complaint, had kept her peace with the alleged torture being meted out to her by her own husband and in-laws for, what the police claim could be a period of up to seven years.

“What we are baffled by,” admitted a senior police officer, “is ascertaining her state of mind after she left the police station. She had already given a complaint and had been assured that justice would be done. We have detained her husband and are questioning all those named in the complaint to ascertain the extent of torture that Vinita was being subjected to.”