In India, there are many crimes related to the bride's dowry. According to statistics, in the five years from 2017 to 2022 alone, more than 35,000 brides in India were killed because the dowry was too little!
Although, Indian law defined the giving and receiving of dowries as early as 1961 as an illegal act.
But according to a recent study, 90% of Indian marriages still involve dowry.
On March 18 this year, the tragedy of a young bride who had just passed the door for a year committed suicide in the man's home.
Unexpectedly, after this tragedy, an even greater tragedy was introduced...
In February last year, Anshika, who is in her 20s, married into a merchant family in the same city, and the man's family is a timber business, and he has a younger sister.
On the ground floor of the house is a shop facing the street, which sells timber and stores timber.
At that time, the wedding of Ansika and Anshu Kesarwani was huge.
According to Ansika's grandfather, Ansika, who also has some assets in the family, brought a dowry of 5 million rupees (about 433,000 yuan), "everything a new family needs", and a car worth 1.6 million rupees (about 138,000 yuan).
However, when she returned to her parents' house after getting married, Ansika complained to her mother's family that her mother-in-law asked her to ask for more dowry, but she was unwilling, so she was harassed by her mother-in-law's family.
(Ansica's mother-in-law and father-in-law)
At that time, Ansika's family made Ansika patient,
"We told her to stay at her in-laws' house and adjust herself, and we told her things would get better." Grandpa was interviewed with regret in his voice.
And what about the Kesavani family?
It is said that his family still has a very high social status in the local area, and people describe them as "humble", "friendly" and "helpful", and "very good people".
And for Ansika, who married into this timber merchant family, a nearby female neighbor also gave a positive evaluation:
"She did a very good job... It's a lovely girl".
The female neighbor also described Ansika's family as looking "very simple".
With such a perfect and well-fitting family, how could Ansika hang herself?
On a Monday in March, Ansika didn't come downstairs to have dinner with her family as usual (Ansica and her husband's room was on the top floor), and her in-laws said they thought she was "asleep."
After 10 p.m., when Ansika's husband, Anshu Kesavani, returned to his room to rest after finishing his business, he found that the door was locked, and he called Ansika's mobile phone, but there was no response.
He smashed through the glass window of his bedroom, only to see Ansika hanged herself.
He quickly informed the whole family, then went to the police station to report the incident, and then informed Ansika's family of the sad news.
But Anshu Kesavani never imagined that this was just the beginning of another great tragedy for his family...
Ansika's family rushed over, but it didn't look good, and according to Ansica's sister-in-law, Ansica's father, uncle and cousins came to her house around 11 p.m., armed with sticks in their hands.
(Mother-in-law)
In addition to their "12 people", there were also "about 60 or 70 people" who showed up at Anshu Kesavani's house and beat them up without saying a word.
At this time, the police also came, but there were not enough police officers to stop Ansika's family from punching and kicking Anshu Kesavani's family.
And when Ansika's family took Anxika's body, they locked the door on the first floor, the only exit from the house, from the outside, and someone set fire to the house before locking it.
The wood on the first floor soon began to burn violently, and the fire grew bigger and bigger.
The police did not expect that a suspected suicide case would develop into a fight and arson in a short period of time.
The police immediately called the fire department and saved 5 people.
But the fire was so big that it took the fire department three hours to basically extinguish the fire.
In the process, some people thought that Anshu Kessawani's parents had successfully escaped with Anshu Kesavani, and that Anshu Kesavani's sister and aunt had successfully escaped through the window to the house of a relative next door.
But it was only at 3 a.m. that the fire was brought under control, and the bodies of Anshu Kessawani's parents in their 60s were found in the stairwell on the second floor of the house...
The police, who were witnesses and law enforcers in the entire arson case, have now arrested seven of Ansika's close family members.
Anshu Kesavani's sister is now suing her sister-in-law's family for the crime and pleads for the arrival of justice:
"I want justice. My life was ruined, my home and family were gone.
I want a free and impartial investigation where everyone found guilty must be punished.
Why did they burn down the house? Have we found the evidence now? ”
Anshu Kesavani's sister also blamed the police for failing to save her parents, "There were at least two dozen police officers outside our house, but no one went in to save my parents. They just stood and watched. ”
Regarding the suspicion of the dowry, the sister said that "Ansika's family gave her daughter everything she wanted", stressing that her family "did not ask for anything." ”
The implication is that they have denied that they killed or forced Ansika to death.
And what about Ansika's relatives? While most of their relatives are still in prison, they also demand justice for Ansica, for which they countersued Anshu Kesavani's family, asking the police to investigate the dowry harassment and whether Ansica died by suicide.
The autopsy found that Ansika's specific time of death was 3 p.m. that day (the husband did not find out until 10 p.m. that his wife had committed suicide).
Now, Anshu Kesavani's sister is very sad, and Anshu Kesavani himself is nowhere to be found, and it is said that he is hiding in order to avoid the harassment and threats of Ansica's family.
Anshu Kesavani's parents were burned alive, their house was reduced to nothing, and their family, home and possessions disappeared overnight.
Ansika's family is not having a good time, after Ansika is gone, most of the family has been locked up and prosecuted, I don't know when I will be able to return to normal life.
Today, Anshu Kesavani's neighbors still can't understand and forget about this incident:
"Anshu Kesavani's family are very nice people. We can't even imagine how this could happen. They're not the kind of people who get involved in fights," said a man who lives near their home.
The woman committed suicide due to dowry harassment, and the woman's family "went crazy" to abolish the man's family, causing the man's family to be ruined.
What is the truth, we can only wait and see the results of the investigation...