A 37-year-old woman in Bengaluru died Monday after accusing her husband and her father-in-law of injecting her with mercury in a bid to poison her slowly.
Vidya A, mother of a four-year-old boy, filed a complaint at the Attibele police station Sunday against her husband Basavaraju M and her father-in-law Mariswamachari. The police then took a video statement from her at Victoria Hospital, where she was undergoing treatment, hours before she died due to multiple organ failure.
Vidya, in her complaint, alleged that she was injected with something by her husband on the night of February 26. She said Basavaraju, a businessman, was used to scolding her, and she was surprised by his unusual display of affection that evening, but lost consciousness shortly afterwards.
As per the FIR dated November 23, she woke up in the evening of February 27 and realised she was experiencing pain in her right thigh. Upon examining her thigh, she allegedly discovered a mark that appeared to be from an injection. Unable to tolerate the pain, she visited the Attibele government hospital on March 7, where the doctors advised her to go to Oxford Hospital for further evaluation.
After undergoing several tests at Oxford Hospital, doctors reportedly confirmed the presence of mercury in her body. She spent one-and-a-half months there as an inpatient before being transferred to Victoria Hospital, she told the police.
In the FIR and in her statement to the police on Sunday, Vidya claimed that doctors had confirmed the presence of mercury, which had spread throughout her body.
“It has weakened my organs and damaged my kidneys. I have been required to undergo regular dialysis as my health has been deteriorating every day,” she told the police.
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The police initially filed the case under sections 85 (cruelty by a husband or his relatives towards a woman) and 109 (1) (attempt to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). But soon after her death, they added Section 80, which deals with dowry death.
“The post-mortem has been completed, and we are yet to get the reports from the doctors officially. The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) reports are pending. We will continue to further probe the matter. We have recorded her video statement, which she gave on Sunday,” said a police officer.
Basavaraju and Mariswamachari have not been arrested yet because the reports are pending, the officer said.