NEW DELHI: “Save me, they are beating me,” 25-year-old Veena Kumari allegedly told her elder sister during a phone call on May 18, minutes before she fell from the terrace of her home in west Delhi’s Dasghara village and died. Her family has alleged that years of dowry-related harassment, repeated assaults and humiliation over inadequate dowry led to her death.Seven minutes after the distress call to her sister Reena (34) at around 9.55 pm, the family received another call informing them that Veena had fallen from the terrace. “In the last call she made, she emphasised that if she died, we should take care of her son,” said her younger brother Rajkumar (22), a law student.Veena, the second among six siblings in a farming family from Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal, had studied till Class XII and briefly worked at a private job between 2017 and 2018. According to her family, she used her earnings to support her younger brother’s education.Read also: Dowry demands, beatings never stopped, claims family of Delhi woman who fell to deathHer father Suresh, a farmer, alleged that despite limited financial means, the family fulfilled dowry demands at the time of her marriage to Raju, a helper at a private firm, in December 2022.“A bike, a 32-inch LED TV, furniture… all this still wasn’t enough. They kept asking for more, beating her up,” Suresh alleged.The family claimed the harassment began within six months of the marriage after Veena moved to Delhi.“The first fight happened a year after they wed,” Rajkumar said. “Didi called me over. I saw nail scratches all over her, and they had slammed her head against the wall.” He further alleged that one assault was so severe that a slap ruptured her eardrum.According to the family, the abuse continued even during pregnancy.Rajkumar alleged that Veena was forced to cook on a traditional wood-fired stove while pregnant and continued to face beatings after giving birth. The family also claimed her in-laws taunted and humiliated her over medical expenses despite the child being delivered at a government hospital.The family alleged that the situation worsened after the April 25 wedding of Veena’s brother-in-law. They claimed Raju’s family received a larger dowry in that marriage and began comparing and humiliating Veena’s family over it.“We wanted to approach the police, but village elders intervened through a panchayat and told us not to file a complaint,” Rajkumar alleged.The family further claimed that Veena was kept financially dependent on her in-laws and often secretly sought help from her brother for basic expenses. “I used to secretly send her money so she could buy supplies for her infant son,” Rajkumar said.Police have arrested Raju and his younger brother in connection with the case and sent them to judicial custody.
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