Hyderabad: A woman died in a hospital while undergoing treatment after she was allegedly being beaten by her husband at her residence within the Maheshwaram police station limits on Thursday. The victim’s family has alleged negligence by the police in handling the case.
“I lodged a complaint with the Maheshwaram police five times before about her husband’s violence, but I received no response from them. They would make fake assurances of registering an FIR, but they did not until the situation got worse. A couple of days after the FIR was finally registered, my sister succumbed to injuries,” Ramesh, the deceased’s brother, told Deccan Chronicle.
According to Maheshwaram Inspector H Venkateshwarulu, the deceased has been identified as Santosha, 25, and her husband as Santosh. Santosha died while undergoing treatment at a government hospital at 7 am on Thursday.
In 2019, Santosha was married to Santosh, along with a dowry of Rs 8 lakh given to the husband’s family. Within a span of four to five years, the couple had two children.
As time went by, Santosh allegedly beat the deceased up, forcing her to get more money from her family in the form of a dowry.
“He later got into a relationship with another woman. He would physically and mentally harass her almost everyday. After my sister learnt of it three days back, she confronted him. In response, he allegedly beat her up with sticks kicked her on the stomach and left her on the road, asking her to not return home.”
Nowhere to go, the victim reached out to her family, who immediately brought it to the notice of the police again. “We had counselled him before. He did not change his habits. So we registered a case three days back,” the Inspector said.
The case was initially registered under Sections 85, 118(1), and 352 of the BNS.
On Thursday morning, when Santosha again complained of unbearable pain, she was shifted to Maheshwaram Government Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries at 7 am.
Following this, the charges against Santosh were altered to Sections 80 (dowry death), 85 (cruelty against women), and 103 (punishment for murder) of the BNS. He has been taken into police custody, said the inspector.
“We are still not sure what caused her death. There were a lot of blunt injuries found on the victim’s body, but no bleeding injuries. We are awaiting reports from the forensic lab to come to a conclusion about her death,” the inspector said.
However, the victim’s brother has alleged that his sister had died because of her husband’s torture.
