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Family narrates ordeal of woman who died by suicide in New York
According to the family, the woman, who hails from UP’s Bijnor district, was living in New York with her husband and two daughters, aged four and six, and narrated alleged torture for dowry by her husband and in-laws in a couple of purported videos, before dying by suicide.
“Pain, torture and trauma are the words that define her eight-year-long marriage,” said the father of a 30-year-old Uttar Pradesh-born woman who died by suicide in New York on August 3 after alleged domestic abuse by her husband.
According to the family, the woman, who hails from UP’s Bijnor district, was living in New York with her husband and two daughters, aged four and six, and narrated alleged torture for dowry by her husband and in-laws in a couple of purported videos, before dying by suicide. Her videos have since gone viral on social media.
“There was no one by her side when she breathed her last. The level of helplessness, which we are facing, is hard to define. I don’t want others to go through the same circumstances, hence we have taken action against the husband’s family for dowry death,” said the 60-year-old father.
On August 5, an FIR was registered at the Najibabad Police Station, Bijnor, against the husband and her in-laws under sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 498-A (domestic violence), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) and Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, a police official told PTI.
Ravindra Verma, station house officer (SHO), Najibabad police station, Bijnor, said, “A case has been registered against the husband’s parents under Dowry Act and for abetment of suicide (Section 306 of the IPC). The victim’s parents said a case had also been registered against the husband in New York.”
According to the father, the couple married eight years ago in 2014 and stayed in Uttar Pradesh for two years.
“In 2014, my daughter married that man, thinking it to be the best-suited match. He was a truck driver in New York,” recalled the father. “Soon after the marriage, in-laws started demanding dowry. They often asked my daughter for ₹25 lakh cash and a luxury car. When she refused, they used to torture her and convey their demand to us,” he added.
Initially, the couple stayed in Badiya village for two years after marriage and one of their daughters was born there. “We thought things will improve, but the torture rather increased after the birth of a girl child,” alleged the father.
Things improved a bit after the family’s intervention, and the duo settled in New York, where the woman gave birth to another daughter. But things worsened thereon, he said.
“Around nine months back, he kidnapped my daughter and kept her locked in a truck’s container for five days. He forced my daughter to relieve herself in the container and then sent us her videos of cleaning the container,” added the father.
The woman’s cousin brother said that things improved briefly after the family registered a complaint against the husband with the New York Police.
“Things improved then. He apologised to her and requested her to withdraw the case, saying that he won’t repeat the things,” said the cousin brother.
But things went back to square one, after which the father sought the Indian government’s intervention in the matter.
“It has been eight years. I have tried my best. I was beaten up every day for no reason…I thought he would improve someday. But no, he beat me up for eight years and had extra-marital affairs. We lived there (in India) for the first two and a half years, and it was hell,” the woman can be heard saying in the video.
“My father registered a police case. Then he started begging, saying, ‘save me, save me.’ I saved him. But my in-laws didn’t do anything to help me. I won’t say anything. You all ganged up and left me helpless. I have to leave my kids and go now,” it added.
According to Instagram page @TheKaurMovement, the New York Police Department is investigating the case as a homicide rather than a suicide.
