KANPUR: An alleged case of dowry-related cruelty by a railway-retired father-in-law against his daughter-in-law came to light in Kanpur after a video of the woman’s screams and the assault went viral on social media. The woman was seen pleading for help, but people around were too scared to intervene. According to information, the victim, a woman from Prayagraj, was married in 2020 to Himanshu Dubey from the Anand Nagar area of Kanpur. Himanshu worked as an IT manager in a shoe company, while his father Sushil Dubey retired from the post of clerk in the Railway Department. The victim alleged that her in-laws had made heavy dowry demands from the time of marriage, including 2 bigha of land and Rs 20 lakh in cash. Whenever she protested and refused to fulfil these demands, she faced beatings, abuses and mental torture at home. She said her father-in-law Sushil Dubey, mother-in-law Rama, brother-in-law Abhishek and sister-in-law Shruti used to harass her. A few days ago, the victim went to her maternal home. On Friday at around 2 pm, she returned to her in-laws’ house with her brother Rishikesh Pandey and sister-in-law Preeti Pandey.
As soon as she knocked at the door and entered, Sushil Dubey flew into a rage, hurled filthy abuses and attacked her without provocation. She alleged. The victim said that the father-in-law pinned her to the ground and brutally beat her with kicks and punches, and then tore her clothes and attacked her private parts. When her sister-in-law and nearby neighbours stepped forward to help, she said, the father-in-law threatened to kill them as well.
She further alleged that he grabbed her by her hair and dragged her from inside the house onto the street. The victim said her 5-year-old daughter was present in the house and witnessed the assault. She also alleged that her in-laws were conspiring to murder her and that she had been kept confined in the house. She sustained deep injuries on multiple parts of her body, but the family did not get her any medical treatment. She filed a complaint with the police, but initially no concrete action was taken. Upon learning of the incident, ACP (Chakeri) Abhishek Kumar Pandey took cognisance of the matter, got an FIR registered, and arrested the accused. The ACP stated that a viral video of the incident had also surfaced. At first glance, the viral video clearly showed the father-in-law beating the daughter-in-law.
