Bride burning cases: some families are repeat offenders

NK SINGH

The burning to death of newly-wed brides is on the increase in Madhya Pradesh. Though exact figures are not available, according to newspaper reports half a dozen such cases were registered in the State during the last two months.

The police recently arrested a naib tehsildar of Ujjain, Mr Om Prakash Sharma, in connection with the death last month of his daughter-in-law. Mrs Alka Sharma, who had been married to Mr Divya Prakash Sharma, last May.

Twenty-year-old Alka had died shortly after sustaining third-degree burns. Police said she had been harassed in connection with her dowry and a case under Section 306 IPC was registered after recording the statements of the witnesses. 

The police have also taken into possession certain letters written by the father-in-law of the deceased to Mr R. C. Upadhyaya, father of Alka, expressing dissatisfaction over the "inadequate dowry".

In yet another case, Mr Manaklat Banbat, a freedom fighter and a resident of Nizamat Road village in Sehore district, has appealed for a CBI probe into the "suspicious" death of his 25-year-old daughter, Subhadra, at Indore in July last, which was described by the local police as a "suicide by burning following domestic trouble".

Mr Banbat said in his complaint that his daughter was married to Mr Suresh Lodha of Indore on July 24, 1977. and died on July 16, 1978.

This was the third case of death due to burn injuries in the family of Mr Lodha. The two deceased were sister-in-law of Suresh Lodha. "There is no reason to believe that my daughter committed suicide. She was a graduate and studying law", said Mr Banbat. He alleged that he was not informed of her death.

There was a volley of questions in the monsoon session of the State Vidhan Sabha about the burnt brides. In reply to a question, the Minister of State for Home, Mr P. N. Tripathi said police investigations into these cases were continuing.

During the tightened administration of the Emergency, the State government had taken certain preventive measures, directing the police, the hospital and other concerned authorities to thoroughly investigate all burn death cases of newly married girls. The directive empowered doctors treating women to take down their dying declaration if the Magistrate or the police failed to appear on the scene in time. 

To avoid any collusion by doctors, only civil surgeons or senior health officers were empowered to make post-mortems of suspicious cases. The DIG, CID and professor Heeresh Chandra of the forensic department of Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal a wizard in unearthing such cases were to be informed in all such cases.

Pathetically, the State Government seems to have forgotten about its own directive because it was issued by a Congress Ministry and it has never been enforced strictly.

In 1976 the Government amended the anti-dowry legislation, enhancing the punishment to imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of up to Rs 10,000. If a girl is ill-treated during the first five years of her marriage it is to be deemed as an attempt to extract dowry. The punishment for this is imprisonment of anything from one month to two years and a fine of up to Rs. 1000. Yet brides die, suspiciously enough of burns. 

Sunday

October 15, 1978