VELLORE: More than a year after a 26-year-old woman was found dead in Gudiyattam town, a Revenue Divisional Officer’s (RDO) inquest has now established through forensic evidence that she was strangulated to death with evidence pointing to her husband, his sister and mother in her murder over issues relating to demands for dowry.
Police arrested the deceased Shalini’s husband, Dharani Kumar (36), his sister Ramani (42) and his mother Maniammal (60) of Gudiyattam town on Monday.
Shalini married Kumar, an electrician, on January 17, 2013. Shalini’s father Ramakrishnan had re-married after his first wife died early, a fact which was hidden from Dharani and his family members. When the husband and his family learnt of Shalini’s father’s second marriage, they abused her and demanded more dowry. On May 29, 2014, Dharani Kumar called Ramakrishnan, who was living in Bangalore, and told him that Shalini had died from epileptic fits. Her father, however, suspecting foul play, filed a complaint with the police. Police registered a case under Section 174 (3) of CrPC (death of a woman within seven years of her marriage in any circumstances raising a reasonable suspicion that some other person committed an offence in relation to such woman) and forwarded the case to the RDO for initiating an inquest.
With no external injuries on Shalini’s body, family members claimed that she had died of seizure, said DSP E Vijayakumar, the Investigation Officer in the case. Shalini’s body was sent to a forensic laboratory in Chennai for a post-mortem report.
