A 25-year-old woman living with her husband and mother-in-law in Kurla’s Kamani area died by suicide on January 9 at their residence. According to the victim’s father, she was constantly pressurized for dowry which led to the suicide. The husband and his mother have been booked by the Ghatkopar police.
Details of case
The complainant in the matter is the victim’s mother Anjamma Bodi (46), a resident of Telangana. According to Bodi, her daughter Lakshmi whose name was changed to Mansi (after marriage), got married to a Kurla-based man named Satish Uchkilla (32) in May 2022. The couple stayed with Satish’s mother Anjamma at their Kamani-based apartment.
Months after the marriage, Mansi kept complaining to her parents about how she was being mentally harassed by her husband and MIL in the name of dowry. Given Mansi’s family’s financial situation, they had denied giving any money or jewellery as dowry, which bothered the accused.
Mansi’s mother alleged that five to six months after the marriage, Satish and her mother even visited Mansi’s parents’ house in Telangana demanding Rs. 1 lakh. They said they needed money and assured to return it, but they never did. In the following months, Satish kept pestering Mansi to ask for money from her parents and every time Mansi’s parents somehow arranged the money so Mansi did not suffer at her in-laws’ house.
Domestic abuse force Mansi to take harsh measures
On several occasions, Mansi would go to her parents’ house to escape from the torture with her husband, but every time, Anjamma said they would request her to go back to protect her marriage.
On July 26, Anjamma received a call from a relative who said Mansi tried to commit suicide by consuming poison. Even though Mansi survived, Anjamma said she was left alone at the hospital by her in-laws. Mansi had told her mother that she was unable to deal with the stress, and in addition, also confessed that she was being assaulted by her husband. According to Anjamma, Satish didn’t have any job or income, and he was completely dependent on Mansi to whom he would ask to borrow money from her parents.
Mansi hangs herself
On the night of January 9, Anjamma received a call from the Ghatkopar police station informing her about her daughter’s suicide. The police asked Anjamma and her husband to come to the police station to record the statements when she narrated the entire ordeal Mansi was going through after the marriage. Mansi hanged herself to death in the bedroom of her apartment. She was taken to Rajawadi Hospital, but she was declared dead before arrival, police said.
Shortly after, police registered an FIR against Satish and his mother on charges 304B (dowry death), 306 (abetment to suicide), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 498A (husband or relative subjecting woman to cruelty), 34 (common intention), among others of the Indian Penal Code. Police said that they are probing the case, and no arrests have been made so far.
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