01-06-2025
Man gets 10 years for abetting wife's suicide over dowry
Bhopal/Jabalpur: A sessions court in Jabalpur has sentenced a man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment, and imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh for dowry harassment and abetment of his wife's suicide.
Two of his cousins, named as co-accused, were also found guilty, and handed one-year jail terms along with fines of Rs 1,000 each.
According to the prosecution, the victim, Titiksha Tiwari, was married to Nitin Shukla on Feb 6, 2013. Both are residents of Jabalpur but her husband had a job in Tamil Nadu and was posted at Kanchipuram. Her in-laws demanded Rs 8 lakh in cash and other goods in dowry but the girl's family expressed inability to meet their demand.
Ultimately, both the parties agreed to marriage with the woman's family paying Rs 4 lakh in cash and giving other household goods worth Rs 2.5 lakh.
Appearing for the family of the deceased woman, who committed suicide on Sept 18, 2023 at their house in Kanchipuram, advocate Narendra Jain said Titiksha had moved to Kanchipuram after marriage but she was being constantly subjected to torture by her husbsand Nitin Shukla, her mother in-law Kalpana Shukla and maternal cousins of her husband Anup Tiwari and Atul Tiwari.
She had apprised her parents of the pain and anguish she was going through because of their ill-treatment. Fed up with the torture, Titiksha committed suicide by hanging at her house in Kanchipuram on September 18, 2013. A suicide note was also recovered from her person following her death.
Family of the woman had lodged an FIR at Kotwali police station in Jabalpur. Following investigation, police accused her husband and her two cousins of dowry harassment and abetment of suicide in the charge-sheet presented in the court.
The trial court of judge Abhishek Saxena based on evidence produced in the court and statements of witnesses held the accused guilty and sentenced the husband of the woman to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and his cousins to 1 year each.
