A 20-year-old Pune-based woman married into a Vikhroli-based family died by suicide on April 21 after her in-laws and husband allegedly tortured her for not providing dowry money. The Parksite police in Vikhroli have arrested the husband, while the in-laws have been booked for abetment to suicide and dowry death.
The matter surfaced on April 25 when a woman named Kavita Bule approached the Parksite police. Bule and her husband Ramdas are both farmers in Ambegaon, Pune, and she had a daughter named Vaishnavi whom they married off to a Vikhroli-based man named Gorakshnath Bhojne in December 2022, as per Hindu customs.
After marriage, Vaishnavi visited her parents every 2 to 3 months, said Ms Bule, adding that the former mentioned her in-laws planning to buy a flat for which they would pressurise her into getting money from her parents. Tired of the taunts, Vaishnavi would cry in front of her parents and about six months ago, Mr and Ms Bule met the family and assured them to give money after the loan amount was settled.
Miscarriage, Estrangement And Untimely Demise Of Vaishnavi Bule
Ms Bule added that every time Vaishnavi would visit home, she would be upset but that changed after she broke the news of her pregnancy. “Some days later, my daughter called me and said she was experiencing severe stomach pain all of a sudden and that she was going to the doctor to check. She miscarried and the reason is the abortion pill which they gave to her,” she said.
After the incident, for almost 4-5 months Vaishnavi didn’t go to her parents’ house and even stopped responding to her mother’s phone calls. She had told them that she would be coming on April 14, but she didn’t. Later on April 21, Ms Bule called her and a kid received the phone and said Vaishnavi had been taken to the hospital. On the same day around 3.45, Ms Bule called Vaishnavi’s mother-in-law to check what happened, and crying, she said that Vaishnavi was no more.
Husband Arrested, Investigation Ongoing Against Other Accused
The Bule family reached Rajawadi Hospital and were told that Vaishnavi hanged herself to death. Based on her interaction with her daughter, Ms Bule alleged that Vaishnavi was harassed by her in-laws and husband six months after the marriage to bring money as dowry as they wanted to buy a flat.
After the FIR was registered, police arrested the husband of the deceased victim who is currently remanded to police custody by the court. Senior Police Inspector Santosh Ghatekar said, "We have arrested the husband, and the probe on the remaining accused is ongoing." Along with the husband, police have mentioned Bhagwan (father-in-law of the victim), Manda (mother-in-law), and Sneha Bhojne (sister-in-law) as accused for the charges under sections 304B (dowry death), 306 (abetment to suicide), 34 (common intention) and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code. "Further we will be recording statements of the victim's friend while subsequently we are waiting for the doctor's examination report to be released," added Ghatekar.
