In recent decades, thousands of brides have been murdered by grooms’ families who demanded the payment of large dowries. The stringent Dowry Law passed in the meantime to prevent such crimes is now being misused by brides — and driving grooms to suicide.
On the night of December 9th, Atul Subhasha 34-year-old Indian software engineer, committed suicide. Next to the body, there was a poster with a message: “justice is due“.
Subhash also left a detailed 24-page suicide note and an 81-minute video, in which he attributes the decision to commit suicide to the difficulties in his marriage and the divorce process.
The letter and the video, with painful details about your lifelaunched the controversy and provoked outrage on Indian social networks, says .
In the two documents, the software engineer, who lived in Bengaluru, formerly Bangalore, in southern India, accuses his wife, Nikita Singhaniamother-in-law and brother-in-law of “prolonged harassment and torture for dowry”.
Singhania’s family denies all allegations.
The news of Atul Subhash’s tragic death mobilized activists and organizations defending the men’s rightsand began a wider debate on the rigid Indian dowry legislationcreated to protect women from harassment — and often even murder.
Many argue that, with the continuous increase in divorce cases in the country, legislation became misused by women to harass their husbands, sometimes leading to suicide — as has now happened to Subhash.
The case was even commented on by a judge of the Supreme Court of India, who describes dowry law as “legal terrorism” and highlights that this legislation was “created to be used as protection and not as a weapon for killers“.
But the defenders of women’s rights highlight, on the other hand, that the payment of large dowries demanded by their husbands’ families continues every year kill thousands of women.
Mutual accusations
Subhash and Singhania got married in 2019, but lived separated for three years.
The software engineer says he couldn’t see his four-year-old son and that his wife filed “false lawsuits”who accused him of cruelty, dowry abuse and various other transgressions.
In the video, Subhash accuses the Singhania family of “extortion”who allegedly demanded 30 million rupees from him (around R$ 340 thousand) to withdraw the legal actions and 3 million rupees for visitation rights to the child, in addition to an increase in the monthly pension from 40 thousand to 200 thousand rupees (about 230 euros)
Subhash also reports dozens of long trips to attend hearings in recent years, and accuses a judge of bribery and harassmentfor having ridiculed him. A note apparently issued by the judge qualifies the accusations as “baseless, immoral and defamatory“.
News of the suicide sparked a wave of protests in several cities. Many people took to social media to demand justice for Subhash, demanding that the suicide is treated as murder and that Singhania be arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Thousands of people left comments on the X/Twitter profile of the North American multinational where Singhania worked, demanding his resignation.
After demonstrations of indignation, the Bengaluru police have filed a case against the people named in the suicide note. On December 14, Singhania, her mother and brother were arrested on charges of “incitement to suicide”.
During interrogation, reports The Times of India, Singhania denied allegations that she had harassed Subhash for money and stressed that she had previously brought serious charges against her husband.
In your orium, submitted in 2022, It is Singhania who accuses Subhashher in-laws and a brother-in-law harass for dowrystating that they had been dissatisfied with the gifts offered by his parents during the marriage and who demanded an additional 1 million rupees (about 11 thousand euros).
35 thousand dead brides
Dowries were banned in India in 1961, but the bride’s family is still expected to offer gifts of money, clothes and jewelry to the groom’s family.
According to a publication published in 2003, around 90% of marriages in India also involve payment of dowries — which, between 1950 and 1999, totaled around 240 billion euros.
According to data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau, between 2017 and 2022, 35,493 brides were killed in the country for dowry reasons. This number represents, – in some cases, a few years after marriage.
Em 2022, more than 6,450 brides were murdered for issues related to dowry payments – an average of 18 women per day.
Singhania says that father died of a heart attack shortly after the wedding, when Subhash’s parents came to him to demand dowry, and declared that her husband threatened her, that he beat her after drinking alcohol, and that he treated the husband-wife relationship “like a wild beast” by demanding sexual practices forced.
Subhash had denied all the allegations.
Police say they are still investigating allegations from both sides, but Subhash’s suicide has escalated the demands for review or even elimination of India’s strict anti-dowry law – Chapter 498A of the country’s Penal Code.
The legislation came into force in 1983after a wave of dowry-related deaths in the Indian capital, New Delhi, and other parts of the country. There were daily reports of brides burned to death by husbands and in-lawsin addition to murders often resulting from “domestic accidents”.
Strong protests by women parliamentarians and activists forced the Indian parliament to create the legislation, which, according to the lawyer Sukriti Chauhan“arrived after a long and difficult fight and allows women to seek justice in cases of cruelty in their matrimonial homes.”
But, over the years, the law repeatedly made it to the front pages of newspapers. Men’s rights activists say the legislation is being misused by women to harass husbands and their relatives.
On the day of the suicide news, the Supreme Court, which on several occasions had warned against the misuse of this law, highlighted once again — in another case — “the growing trend of misuse of regulations as tool to launch personal vendettas against husbands and their families.”
A question of gender
Amit Deshpandefounder of a men’s rights organization, says that the law is being used “mainly to extort men” and that “thousands of others are suffering like Subhash”.
Deshpande says that his organization’s telephone answering service receives about 86 thousand calls every year. Most cases involve matrimonial disputes that include fake dowry cases and extortion attempts.
“A domestic industry was formed around the law“, account. “There have been cases where a two-month-old baby and a sick nonagenarian were accused of dowry abuse.”
“I know these are extreme examples, but the system as a whole allows thisin some way,” explains Deshpande. “The police, courts and politicians are turning a blind eye to our concerns.”
Paradoxically, the Patriarchy also turns against mensays Deshpande. “Women have legal resources and receive solidarity. But people they laugh at men who are harassed or suffer domestic violence from their wives.”
“If Subhash had been a woman, he could have resorted to certain laws. Therefore, we want there to be gender-neutral laws and extend the same justice to menso we can save lives.”
Sukriti Chauhan agrees that women who misuse the law should be punished, but emphasizes that any law can be misused. “The Bengaluru case is pending in court and, if the accusations are proven to be false, Singhania should be punishedsays the lawyer.
“But I do not agree that the law should become gender neutral“, he adds. “This claim It’s a setbackas it ignores the need for special measures that recognize that women suffer disproportionate impacts with violence.”
| NOTE: If you have suicidal thoughts, please contact one of these Helplines | ||
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| Line | Contacts | Time |
| 213 544 545 – 912 802 669 – 963 524 660 | 3:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. | |
| Free Green Line | 800 209 899 | 9:00 p.m.-12:00 p.m. |
| 228 323 535 | 4:00 p.m.-12:00 p.m. | |
| 800 209 899 | 4:00 p.m.-12:00 p.m. | |
| 222 030 707 | 9:00 p.m.-12:00 p.m. | |
| All these lines guarantee the anonymity of the caller and the person answering. | 800 209 899 | 800 209 899 |
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