Treated me like a beast: Bengaluru techie’s wife in dowry harassment complaint

Amid nationwide outrage over the suicide of a Bengaluru-based techie, details have emerged of his wife’s 2022 police complaint alleging harassment and assault for dowry.

In the complaint filed on April 24, 2022, in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur, Nikita Singhania alleged that Atul Subhash used to beat her up and started treating the husband-wife relationship “like a beast”, PTI reported.

In her complaint, Nikita had mentioned her husband, his parents and brothers-in-law as accused. An FIR was subsequently lodged under provisions of the Dowry Prohibition Act. Nikita, who is from Jaunpur, got married to Subhash, a Bihar native, in 2019. They lived in Bengaluru and used to work there.

In her complaint, Nikita alleged that after her marriage, Subhash and her in-laws demanded Rs 10 lakh as they were not satisfied with what her parents gave them. She alleged that her in-laws started torturing her “physically and mentally” for dowry.

Despite sharing her ordeal with her parents, they advised her to “listen and keep living with it”, Nikita’s complaint further said. However, she said the situation did not improve, and her husband started to threaten and beat her.

“My husband started to beat me up after drinking alcohol and started treating the husband-wife relationship with me like a beast. He used to transfer my entire salary from my account to his account by threatening me,” Nikita claimed in the complaint.

She also claimed that the repeated harassment by her in-laws led to the deterioration in the health of her father, who died on August 17, 2019, due to a stroke.

Subhash, who worked for a private firm in Bengaluru, died by suicide on Monday alleging harassment by his wife and her family members. He left behind a 24-page suicide note detailing emotional distress from marital issues and multiple cases filed against him by his wife.

A case of abetment of suicide has been registered against Nikita and her family members. In his suicide note, Subhash mentioned that Nikita’s claim of her father passing away due to shock after his family demanded a dowry of Rs 10 lakh was false. He alleged that Nikita’s father died due to a heart-related ailment.