Four months after love marriage, Odisha man kills pregnant wife for ‘dowry’

Jajpur: Barely four months after love marriage, a person killed his pregnant wife allegedly for dowry. The incident was reported from Dasarathpur area under Mangalpur police limits in Odisha’s Jajpur district.

The deceased woman has been identified as Rakhi Jena (19), daughter of Nabaghana Jena of Dandisahi village under Dasarathpur block.

Sources said that Rakhi was three months pregnant.

According to reports, Rakhi had married to 24-year-old Suraj Mallick, son of Ajay Mallick of Mahantypatna village under Mallikapur Gram Panchayat on October 29, 2019 after falling in love with each other. After a few days of wedding, her in-laws started torturing her physically and mentally for dowry. They asked her to bring Rs 1 lakh from her father to buy a concrete mixture machine. In this regard, they had also telephoned Nabaghana’s family twice or thrice demanding dowry.

As Rakhi’s father failed to arrange money, the situation turned worse for her at in-laws’ house.

On Saturday evening, Rakhi’s husband Suraj allegedly forced her to consume poison and strangled her to death. Her family members found marks on her neck and she was foaming at her mouth and nose.

While in-laws of the woman termed the incident as suicide, her family members alleged it as murder.

On receiving information, Mangalpur police reached the site and began investigation into the incident.

Based on complaint by the deceased’s family, police arrested Suraj and registered a case under section 498(a), 304(b), 302, 34 and 4 of IPC against the husband as well as mother-in-law Snehalata Mallick, father-in-law Ajay Mallick and brother-in-law Sanjay Mallick.