(Image source from: The News Minute)

A woman hailing from Telangana's Mahbubabad district and moved to Memphis in Tennessee, with her husband around nine months ago has been found dead in the bathroom on Saturday.

The death of a woman has triggered off a row as her family alleged that she was harassed for dowry.

According to media reports, the woman, identified as S Sandhya married Srikanth, her relative, who was working as a software engineer in the United States. Her parents alleged that though they agreed to give him some land in the village the harassment demanding more dowry continued over the last two months.

Allegedly Srikanth’s family intimidated Sandhya and threatened to kill her if she failed to pay more dowry, according to the victim’s parents.

On Saturday, at around 6:30 a.m., Sandhya's father, Mahender, received a call stating that his daughter had killed herself in the bathroom.

“Sandhya never spoke of any trouble in her marriage for first six months. From February, she began complaining of harassment by Srikanth and his mother D Vijaya who is staying with them. Sandhya informed that she was harassed for dowry. Her husband and mother-in-law demanded Rs 1 crore.” Mahender, a police officer working as a head constable at Narasimhulupet police station, was quoted as saying.  

Mahender later approached the Thorrur police station and filed a complaint. Following this, a case was registered and an investigation was launched.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) states that in 2015, as many as 7,634 women died in India due to dowry harassment. Either they were burnt alive or forced to commit suicide over dowry demand.

The dowry is defined as a gift demanded or given as a precondition for marriage. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, prohibits the request, payment or acceptance of a dowry 'as consideration for marriage'.

By Sowmya Sangam