Bengaluru suicide: What wife’s dowry complaint said, countered by techie’s note

Nikita had filed the complaint in 2022, alleging harassment and assault by her husband and in-laws for dowry. She claimed that her husband Atul treated the husband-wife relationship "like a beast" and his family's demand for dowry contributed to her father suffering a stroke and dying.

When reporters contacted Nikita's family, they refused to talk and said whatever they have to say will be told in court.

Dowry harassment

Nikita filed the complaint in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur, where her family lives, in April 2022, claiming she was harassed and assaulted for dowry. Subhash, his brother and their parents were named as accused.

Also read: Techie's suicide: Yet to receive any communication from Bengaluru, say UP cops

Apart from the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, the complaint also had charges like cruelty by husband or relatives, assault, and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code.

According to news agency PTI, Nikita in her complaint alleged that she got married to Subhash on April 26, 2019, and her husband and in-laws, unhappy with what her parents gave them during the wedding, demanded ₹10 lakh more.

The PTI report said they started torturing her physically and mentally for dowry.

“When she told her parents about the harassment and dowry, her parents explained to her that everything will be fine, to listen and keep living with it,” she said, adding that nothing changed for her.

Beastly behaviour

In her complaint, she alleged that her husband started to beat her up after drinking alcohol and started treating the husband-wife relationship with her like a “beast”. She accused him of transferring her entire salary from her account to his account by threatening her.

In his suicide note, however, Atul said her claim of his family asking for ₹10 lakh was "laughable".

Considering that his wife claimed he earned a CTC of ₹40 lakh when she left the house and had a CTC of ₹80 lakh later, he asked why a man making ₹40 or ₹80 lakh would demand ₹10 lakh and leave his wife and child.

Also, responding to the allegation that he beat his wife, the techie had said she had never produced any evidence of this. "If he had beaten her black and blue, a well-built man like him would leave a person with “broken bones, bleeding and at least some marks”.

“Why did she not produce any photo of it or anyone who is a witness (we often had a house maid, cook etc)?" he wrote in the note.

Also read: Bengaluru techie dies by suicide, leaves 24-page note, blaming wife, her kin

Father's death

Even as Nikita had blamed her husband and in-laws for her father's health deteriorating suddenly and dying during treatment in 2021, in his suicide note, Atul had also countered that claim calling it a "poor Bollywood plot".

He claimed her father had been undergoing treatment for diabetes and heart disease for 10 years. He said doctors had already given Nikita's father a few months to live.

Nikita Singhani, her mother Nisha Singhania, brother Anurag Singhania and uncle Sushil Singhania have been charged with abetment of suicide after Atul Subhash died by suicide in his house in Bengaluru.

In his suicide note, Atul had said he was dying by suicide because his wife and her relatives had filed a slew of false cases against him and his family and they were trying to get him to pay ₹ 2 lakh a month as maintenance for her and the couple's four-year-old son.

"Now, with me gone, there won't be any money and there won't be any reason to harass my old parents and my brother. I may have destroyed my body but it has saved everything I believe in," he wrote.

(Suicides can be prevented. For help please call Suicide Prevention Helplines: Neha Suicide Prevention Centre – 044-24640050; Aasara helpline for suicide prevention, emotional support & trauma help — +91-9820466726; Kiran, Mental health rehabilitation — 1800-599-0019, Disha 0471- 2552056, Maithri 0484 2540530, and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050.)