The recent suicide of a Bengaluru-based techie has ignited outrage across the nation, more so with each passing day as new details are coming to light about his wife’s police complaint from 2022 on grounds of harassment and assault related to dowry demands. A complaint filed on April 24, 2022, in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, by Nikita Singhania, accused her husband Atul Subhash of physically abusing her and treating the marriage “like a beast,” according to PTI.
In her complaints, Nikita named her husband and his parents and brothers-in-law. An FIR was then registered under the Dowry Prohibition Act. The two, who got married in 2019, came to Bengaluru for a job. Nikita alleged that within a month after their marriage, Subhash and his family, dissatisfied with the dowry given by her parents demanded Rs 10 lakh of her. This demand continued to mount severe physical and mental torture on her.
Having shared her plight with her parents, they advised her to bear with the situation, which she said only deteriorated with time. Nikita said her husband would beat her after consuming liquor and would forcibly transfer her entire salary to his account.
The harassment from her in-laws reportedly took a toll on her father’s health, leading to his death from a stroke on August 17, 2019. Subhash, who was employed with a private firm in Bengaluru, took his own life on Monday, leaving behind a 24-page suicide note that outlined his emotional distress stemming from marital issues and the legal battles initiated by his wife.
Following this, a case of abetment to suicide has been filed against Nikita and her family. Subhash, in his note, has also denied the media reports that Nikita’s father had died of shock over dowry demands. “Nikita’s father was suffering from heart ailments,” he said.
