By Sagar
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 19: A twenty-five year-old housewife was rescued Monday by Mahila Police from prolonged confinement and alleged torture by her husband and in-laws in Bharatpur area, over issues of infertility and non-payment of dowry. The accused have been arrested. The police action came after a city sessions court intervention.
Police said the woman was rescued from the house of her in-laws, where she was “confined without food since December 6, at the culmination of a long period of torture ever since her marriage in 2010. At one time, an attempt was allegedly made to pour kerosene over and burn her.
“There are bruises and wounds on her forehead, hands and neck, caused by her husband and the in-laws beating her with a hot iron rod,” Mahila Police said. The woman was now in a bad state. Her mental and physical condition was stable overall, though she had difficulty walking, the cops added.
The in-laws had allegedly been demanding Rs 60,000 from the victim’s family, by way of extra dowry, and the family said they were not in a position to pay the money, as per the complaint.
In fact, six months ago, the woman’s parents had approached the Khandagiri Police with a complaint, but the police refused to register a case, citing flimsy excuses.
According to the present FIR, a copy of which is in possession of Orissa Post, 32-year-old Rashmi Ranjan Das, a resident of Bharatpur who married her five years ago, and Gourapada Das, 57, his father, repeatedly assaulted Sheetal (name changed) ever since her marriage in 2010. While both were arrested, the other in-laws — Manorama Das, 29, an aganwadi worker, Srimati Das, 49, an employee of Vivekananda Hospital, and Lakshmi Das, 38, ex-sarpanch — are absconding.
It was August 30 last that the victim’s father approached the Khandagiri police to rescue his daughter from an abusive marriage. The in-laws, further angered, assaulted the victim and threw her out of the house at the dead of night. When a PCR van of Khandgiri police station spotted her on the road, crying, she was taken to a girl’s hostel with the help of some locals. She spent the night there. The next day, the matter was settled with the help of locals.
Since December 6, she had been locked in the house without food in complete isolation. Her in-laws snatched away her mobile phone and didn’t let her parents meet her when they visited the house January 10. That day, the in-laws allegedly tried to burn the woman by pouring kerosene on her, but stopped midway through their action.
Sensing torture, the woman’s parents approached the court, instead of the police, seeking rescue of their daughter from the “repeated mental and physical torture.”
Charges under section 109 (abetment), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assault), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death), 406 (breach of trust), 498 (cruelty by husband), 506 (criminal intimidation), 120 (criminal conspiracy), 34 (acts done by several persons) were registered by the Mahila police station.