‘Harassed from 1st month’: Family alleges dowry torture after pregnant defence ministry official’s death in Delhi | Delhi News
NEW DELHI: A 30-year-old pregnant woman posted with the defence ministry was found dead in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka Friday. Police have registered a case of cruelty and abetment to suicide against her husband and in-laws, and are probing charges by the woman’s family that she was being harassed for dowry. Her husband is absconding.The victim, Nazia Khanam, was an assistant section officer (ASO) in the ministry. She had married Mohammad Azam Ali Khan, a supply chain manager in Gurgaon, on April 11 this year. Nazia was three months pregnant and had celebrated her 30th birthday this month. Her family said she was looking forward to a promotion and was planning to buy an apartment in Dec.“On Friday, the couple had gone to a hospital for a checkup. On returning home, they got into an argument. After this, she locked her husband in one room and herself in another. There, she hung herself using a chunni,” a senior police officer said.A PCR call regarding the suicide was received at Sector 23 police station around 4.21pm.
Faced assault
Nazia’s brother, Minhaz, told TOI, “Our family comes from a small village in Bihar’s Patna district. She studied at a govt school in the village, after which our family pooled money to send her to Muzaffarpur for higher secondary education and later to Patna for college. She cleared the Staff Selection Commission examination and became an Income Tax officer when she was 26. She wanted to study further and eventually cleared the SSC CGL examination, becoming an ASO in the defence ministry. She was the brightest among the siblings.”Minhaz said her sister’s marriage was an arranged one and alleged that there were dowry demands since the match was fixed.“We tried to convince her husband and in-laws that she had just secured a govt job and would do very well. We said our family would support her as much as we can. We spent more than Rs 25 lakh of our life savings on a lavish wedding. We bought him a television, furniture, refriger-ator and other items. Despite this, even at the time of the wedding, he demanded a watch costing at least Rs 60,000 and shoes worth Rs 17,000.”“In the first month of marriage itself, Nazia’s husband began harassing and physically assaulting her over such issues. She felt neglected during her pregnancy and confided in her mother. But our family was wary of taking any step fearing embarrassment in the community, especially since she had only recently got married,” Minhaz said.Police have registered a case under section 85 (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 108 (abetment to suicide) of BNS. The family has also demanded that section 80 (dowry death) be added to the FIR.
