KOCHI: Even as the state is yet to come to terms with the tragedy of Kollam native Vismaya’s death following torture by her husband over dowry, a similar incident has been reported at Vathuruthi here, where a 24-year-old Madurai native was found dead on Thursday. Police arrested her husband after it was found that the deceased was constantly harassed for not bringing the promised dowry five years after their marriage.
Deceased Kanimuzhi, 24, was found hanging behind her parents’ rented house in Vathuruthi — mainly inhabited by migrants from Tamil Nadu. The police arrested her husband Karthick after it emerged that the deceased was under severe depression following torture by the accused. The couple has a four-year-old son. “Both Karthick’s family and Kanimuzhi’s parents are labourers. They have been staying at Vathuruthi for several years. Kanimuzhi and Karthick got married here in 2016. The promised dowry was 10 sovereigns of gold. But Kanimuzhi’s parents could give her daughter only four sovereigns at the time of the marriage,” said a police official.
Soon, the dowry-related dispute started and the victim was brutally tortured by Karthick daily. “Fed up with the physical and mental torture, Kanimuzhi attempted suicide in 2018, but survived. Though the accused stopped the torture for a while, it started again recently. We suspect the accused is an alcoholic,” the police official said.
It was on Wednesday that Kanimuzhi reached her parents’ house and disclosed details of Karthick’s torture to her father. “Both her parents went for labour work on Thursday morning. As her father could not find work, he returned home by 10am and found his daughter hanging at the backside of their house. Though she was rushed to hospital, she was declared brought dead,” a police official said. Soon after the incident, the police came to know about the dowry-related dispute between the couple.