Jajpur, May 28: A 26-year-old woman was set ablaze allegedly by her in-laws for dowry at Chahata village in this district, the police said Thursday.
Victim Suchismita Nayak died of burns Tuesday, they said. The body has been sent for post-mortem. “We have registered a case and are investigating into the matter. No one has been arrested as all her in-laws have fled the village soon after the incident,” Jajpur superintendent of police (SP) AK Sahu said.
A case of dowry death has been registered against the in-laws on the basis of a complaint filed by the woman’s father Tuesday night, the SP said.
Surendra Kumar Rout in his FIR with police alleged that his daughter Suchismita got married to Prasant Nayak of Chahata three years ago. As per the demand, cash Rs 2.2 lakh, 250 gm of gold ornaments and other household articles were given to the groom’s family as dowry during the marriage, it said.
Prasant and his family members were not satisfied with the dowry given at the time of marriage and started harassing and torturing Suchismita demanding another Rs 2 lakh.
Suchismita’s father claimed in the FIR that he complied with her in-laws’ demand and paid Rs 2 lakh in four installments in one and half years, police said.
But, Suchismita’s in-laws again started torturing her demanding another Rs 2 lakh as dowry after the former gave birth to a daughter. Suchismita’s in-laws were given `1 lakh in cash on the 21st day ceremony of the granddaughter held in May last year, Rout stated in his FIR.
He said the family continued to harass and torture her repeatedly over dowry demanding Rs 1 lakh cash. “Tuesday at about 4 pm we got a telephone call from my daughter’s in-law family in which we were asked to come to the latter’s house at Chahata. On reaching, we found that the house was locked from outside,” Rout stated in his FIR.
“On being informed by a neighbour, we reached the local government hospital at Dharmasala and found the body of my daughter which was lying on the hospital’s verandah. The body was packed in a sack and none of her in-laws were present. Her in-laws set her on fire and then dumped her body on the hospital verandah to give it a colour of suicide,” the FIR stated. PTI
