Muzaffarnagar: As a woman, 25, hanged herself to death, her in-laws lined up outside to shoot a video through the window and then shared it on social media to “absolve” themselves of murder. Her parents have alleged they had been hounding her for dowry, which led to her death. The woman’s father-in-law and mother-in-law have been arrested while her husband and her brother-in-law, also booked, are on the run. 

The woman, Komal, lived in Muzaffarnagar`s Datiyana village with her husband, Ashish, and in-laws. On Sunday, as she prepared to hang herself, her in-laws waited outside. In the video, she can be seen tying a noose around a beam lining the asbestos roof. She gasps once as she ties the blue stole around her neck, tightens it and tests the grip so it doesn’t give way. After one last check, she lets go and hangs herself as a man’s voice says, “Apne aap latak rahi hai (she hanged herself on her own).” The man’s voice is presumably that of her father-in-law. On Monday, they shared the video on social media, hoping it would go viral. It did.  While confirming the video had been shot from outside the room where she hanged herself, SP (city) Arpit Vijayvargiya said, “They had tried to stop her from killing herself.” Her parents, however, had a different story to tell. 

Komal and Ashish got married in September 2019. “I had given Rs 5 lakh and a bike to his family at the time. But his father Devendra, mother Savita and brother Sachin were not happy. About six months ago, they beat up Komal and drove her out of the house. The elders of the village sent her back,” her father Anil Kumar wrote in the complaint to the police. “Two months ago, they started demanding Rs 1.2 lakh. They said they would get Ashish married to someone else if she could not come up with the dowry. All four of them got together and killed my daughter.” 

An FIR was lodged on Sunday, a day before the video went viral, against Ashish, his brother and his parents under sections 304B (dowry death), 498A (cruelty to married woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and under sections 3 (giving or taking dowry) and 4 (demanding dowry) of The Dowry Prohibition Act. Yashpal Singh, SHO of Chhapar police station, under whose jurisdiction the crime took place, said, “His parents have been arrested and will be produced before the magistrate.” Ashish and his brother Sachin are on the run. 

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