Bengaluru police on Thursday arrested a 31-year-old man on charges of dowry harassment after his wife, a former software engineer, was found dead at their home in southeast Bengaluru.
The Sudduguntepalya police have registered a case under Section 80 (2) (dowry death) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 3 (Penalty for giving or taking dowry) and 4 (Penalty for demanding dowry) of Dowry Prohibition Act against the husband, Praveen, and his mother Shantavva. The FIR was filed on August 27 following a complaint by the victim’s mother, Sharada B Panchangamatha.
According to the FIR, Praveen and his mother tortured Shilpa B Panchangamatha, 27, physically and mentally to bring more dowry. Praveen, a software engineer, quit his job a year after his marriage to Shilpa started a Pani Puri business. The couple have a two-year-old son. Sharada told the police that Shilpa, who worked as a software engineer with a multinational company firm till her child was born, was married to Praveen, a native of Koppal in 2022. The families agreed to the match as both were techies. “The wedding expenses were around `35 lakh, and the groom was given 150 grams of gold ornaments as dowry,” the FIR quoted Sharada as saying.
“After the wedding, Praveen and Shantavva tortured my daughter physically and mentally to bring more money. Shantavva even told my daughter that she was not the right match for Praveen, and if she leaves him, they would remarry him with someone more appropriate. Once I had sent my daughter back with `5 lakh cash,” Sharada said in the FIR.
On August 26, around 9.15 pm, the family were informed that Shilpa had died by suicide at their house in BTM Layout (1st stage). Her body was found on her bed, covered with a bedsheet.
Shilpa’s relatives questioned the circumstances of her death. “If she died by suicide, how did they [her husband and his family] remove her body before the police arrived? Why did they initially claim that it was a heart attack? It is a pre-planned murder. She was one-and-a-half months pregnant at the time of her death,” a relative said.
Shilpa’s sister Soumya alleged that she was murdered. “Her mother-in-law used to body shame her. She was also being tortured by them. They are lying that it was death by suicide. They have murdered her,” Soumya told reporters.