Angul: Police personnel of Model police station here came under fire after several persons who were accused in a dowry death case managed to escape from the district headquarters hospital despite police presence Monday.
Rupa Dhanuka, daughter of Omprakash Dhanuka of Brahamanadeipada in the town, was allegedly killed by her husband Pawan Agarwal and in-laws over dowry demands Monday.
The incident led to tension on the Model police station premises as family members put up the body and staged a demonstration. They alleged that police helped the accused in-laws to escape. They relented and took the body for cremation after SDPO Rabi Narayan Deo and IIC Subhash Sahu assured that the accused would be arrested soon.
Sources said Rupa was married to Pawan, son of Ramswaroop Agarwal in Bazaarpada, five years back. At the time of the wedding, her father gave dowry of over Rs 10 lakh along with gold ornaments of 200 grams.
However, after five months of marriage, her in-laws and husband started torturing her insisting for more dowry, alleged her father in a complaint filed at the police station.
Her father-in-law Ramswaroop, mother-in-law Lalita Devi, brother-in-law Pintu, sisters-in-law Pinki and Rekha all joined hands in torturing her for dowry, according to the complaint. Fed up with the regular torture, she would often come and stay at her parents’ house.
Her in-laws even beat her up in the presence of her mother and aunt when the latter had gone to meet her eight months back. They even allegedly threatened to kill her if additional dowry of Rs 8 lakh was not given to them immediately. This soured the relationship between the two families as Rupa’s parents lodged a complaint at the police station.
The incident occurred when father-in-law Ramswaroop visited her parents and told them that their daughter was dead. The family members rushed to Rupa’s in-laws’ house where they found their daughter’s body lying inside with bruises all over her body.
On being informed, police brought the body and kept it at the morgue of the district headquarters hospital for post-mortem. A case was registered in this connection.
Tension prevailed when the-in-laws of the deceased reached the hospital and demanded custody of the body after post-mortem when police intervened and handed over the body to the family members of the deceased.
Meanwhile, the accused managed to escape despite presence of police officials. PNN
