Sarojini Nagar resident Poonam married Ghaziabad-based Ramprakash in 2012. Within a year their marital life disintegrated to a point where Poonam filed a police complaint against him.
However, the police counselled both sides and they reconciled. In hindsight, her family now repents the reconciliation and concedes it was a mistake.
The 24-year-old was burnt over dowry by her husband and his mother on Thursday evening.
Poonam’s family, however, added that she herself dismissed suggestions of separation from her husband because it would bring a “bad name to the family as her sister was already divorced”.
“A brief phase when he and my sister shifted to another house was a relatively calm one. But then she got pregnant and they went back to live with her in-laws. She was tortured even during the pregnancy, but kept hoping that the birth of a child would change things. But she was wrong,” said Gopal.
He also alleged that Ramprakash kept Poonam’s family in the dark about his employment status.
He had lost his job two months before the wedding, but did not disclose the same to her family or the fact that he was addicted to alcohol.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 91,202 dowry deaths have been reported in the country from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2012. And most of them — 23,824 — were reported from Uttar Pradesh.
