Dowry victim lands up in Mental Hospital

Ambala, Apr 15 (UNI) An internet marriage of a Bengali Computer Engineer with an MCom girl lasting only a few months, left her in utter mental deterioration because of the alleged maltreatment meted out to her by her husband and his parents.

The husband's infidelity made the girl a mental patient, undergoing treatment at a mental hospital these days.

According to girl's father, D D Chatterjee, an ex-serviceman and resident of Defence Enclave Boh Road here, Tuhin Bannerjee who had married his daughter Sipra on April 24, 2002, in complicity with his parents started demanding dowry barely after two months of their marriage.

Tuhin, who was posted at Chandigarh with a private company, lived with Sipra for two months and thereafter he and his parents started damanding Rs seven lakh on the pretext that Tuhin was going to be settled in New Zealand on permanent immigration.

Sipra's father said he had fulfilled their demand by borrowing the amount from relatives and friends when they started threatening of snapping relations with his daughter, if their demand was not met with.

Later, Tuhin left for New Zealand in January 2003 and his parents left the girl at her parents' house on the pretext that they were arranging immigration for her. But they never turned up to take her back.

Mr Chatterjee said they continued to persuade her in-laws for her rehabilitation and ultimately they agreed to take her back on the condition of payment of Rs 5,000 per month for her maintenance.

He further said that he paid Rs 30,000 and they took Sipra back on October 25, 2005, where she was treated well in the beginning but later they started harassing her.

He alleged that she was tortured in such a way that she went into depression. She was again left at her parent's house. Shipra recovered a little after she was admitted to the local mental hospital, and later in the M M College and Hospital, Mullana.

Mr Chatterjee further said that on October 20, 2007, he alongwith his relatives took her daughter to Tuhin's parents residence, where they accused the girl saying that she was a mad girl and their son could not live with her.

''They disclosed that Tuhin had married another girl. They asked us to leave their house and even threatened of dire consequences, when we asked them to return dowry articles and cash which they flatly refused,'' he said.

The police has registered a case under sections 406, 498A, 494 and 506 of the IPC and is further investigating the matter.

UNI PS PY KP1926