Kerala woman accuses husband of torturing her for dowry: Police
The woman’s family has alleged that the local police in Pantheerankavu did not take their complaint against Rahul seriously
A woman has accused her husband of torturing her over dowry within a week of their marriage, police said.
The Kerala State Human Rights Commission has registered a case on its own and ordered an investigation.
The woman, a resident of North Paravur in Ernakulam district, alleged that her husband Rahul attacked her and tried to strangle her to death with the cord of a cellphone charger. She further alleged that he also punched her several times in the head and hit her back with a belt.
“He slapped me on the face first and then punched me in the head at least three times. He also hit me on the forehead and it had swollen. When I tried to escape from the room, he caught me, pushed me on my back on the bed and struck me with a belt. I started bleeding from the nose and began losing consciousness. He also attempted to kill me by constricting my throat with the cord of a mobile charger. He kept saying that he would kill me,” the woman told media persons about the events that unfolded at her in-laws’ home in Pantheerankavu in Kozhikode district on May 11.
The woman said that her husband tortured her in the name of dowry. “He told me that he deserved to get more dowry from my family. He wanted 150 sovereigns of gold and a car. First he assaulted me in the room, he had an hour-long discussion with his mother behind closed doors. He refused to tell me when I asked about it,” she said. She complained that her in-laws did not come to her rescue while she was being assaulted. “I was crying quite loudly in the room and I’m sure they must have heard my cries. But they didn’t intervene,” she said.
The woman’s family has also alleged that the local police in Pantheerankavu did not take their complaint against Rahul seriously. “I don’t think the local police there would investigate seriously. The officers were very friendly with him and I suspect that he would have paid them off. I don’t think we will get justice from them,” the victim’s mother told media persons.
An officer at the Pantheerankavu police station, on condition of anonymity, said a case has been registered against Rahul under section 498(A) (punishment for cruelty inflicted upon married woman by husband or his relatives) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
When asked why the accused was not booked for attempt to murder as per the victim’s complaint, the officer said, “We will add it if it is required. We will have to check the statement of the doctor as well.”
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly VD Satheesan accused the local police of being “indifferent” to the complaint of the woman.
“Are the police with the victim or the accused? The hands of the police are tied.” Satheesan said in a statement.
He said the incident in Pantheerankavu has led to an enlightened state like Kerala to “bow its head down in humiliation.” “It is unbelievable that a woman is tortured in the name of dowry within a week of marriage. The woman was tortured to the extent that her parents could not recognise her. This cannot be accepted,” he said.
