Lawyer, father held after wife dies by suicide

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

A lawyer and his father were arrested on charges of dowry harassment following the death of his 29-year-old wife, the police said on Thursday.

Simran Varma died allegedly by suicide in her south-west Delhi residence on Wednesday. She was declared brought dead at Dwarka’s Indira Gandhi Hospital on Wednesday. Her body was subsequently shifted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital for a post-mortem examination. Simran’s husband, Harshal Varma, in his early 30s, and his father, who was not present at home at the time of the incident was arrested. His father, Dinesh Kumar Varma (55), who runs a small jewellery shop at R. K. Puram in Delhi, was also arrested.

Simran’s father, Deepak Varma, told mediapersons outside DDU Hospital that she had been facing dowry demands since her marriage in February, but they were unable to fulfill her in-laws’ excessive demands. According to family members, they brought her back home in Faridabad after she complained of violence and torture but just four days before her death, her in-laws apologized to the family and took her back. Mr. Varma alleged that the violence and torture resulted in her death and that it is not a suicide.

The police officials said that at the time of the incident, Harshal Varma was not present at home.

“Prima facie, there are no visible injury marks found on her body. However, the post-mortem report is awaited,” a senior officer said.

The officials said that Simran had got married to Harshal Varma this year on February 10. “Since the deceased had been married for less than seven years, SDM Dwarka was informed. Based on the statement of the deceased’s family members recorded before the Executive magistrate, an FIR under Sections 80 and 3(5) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered. Further investigation is in process,” the officer said.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.