The situation continued to be tense in Udaypura town of Madhya Pradesh on Monday, two days after a 27-year-old woman, who claimed to be the daughter-in-law of a state government minister, committed suicide, upset over the fact that her husband was planning to marry someone else.
Preeti Raghuvanshi hanged herself on Saturday morning after learning her husband, Girijesh Pratap Singh, was planning to marry another girl. Girijesh is son of PWD Minister Rampal Singh.
Girijesh had married Preeti, who used to live in a house opposite to his home. Girijesh and Preeti married in a temple of Arya Samaj at Nehru Nagar in Bhopal on June 20 last year. The marriage was performed under Arya Marriage Validation Act, 1937. A certificate was issued after the marriage, which was solemnised in presence of Neeraj Raghuvanshi, Preeti's brother, and several friends of Girijesh.
Rampal, however, had refused to accept the marriage and rejected the claim of family of Preeti that she was his daughter-in-law. The minister told media that he had no idea about any such marriage of his son.
Police recovered a suicide note alongside the body of Preeti, in which she apologised to her parents for marrying the minister’s son and sought forgiveness from them. Preeti was upset that her husband was marrying another lady and the ceremonies of his new marriage were taking place.
A document purported to be the marriage certificate of Preeti and Girijesh | Supplied
Members of Preeti's family shared the contents of her 'suicide note' with media, alleging the minister was responsible for her death as he was marrying off his son to another woman.
Chandan Singh Raghuvanshi, Preeti's father, who used to work as an ambulance driver in the government hospital, told local media that the minister had been pressurising him for getting Preeti married to someone else and even offered the family money. Meanwhile, thousands of members of Raghuvanshi community gathered at the house of the deceased, demanding justice for Chandran.
The situation grew tense after Preeti's family members demanded that the minister's son perform her last rites as he was her husband. Two companies of police force were posted around the house of minister and deceased, fearing untoward incidents.
After 36 hours of the incident, following the intervention of the local police and district collector, the body of Preeti was taken for postmortem. Later, following assurances of District Collector Bhawana Walimbe, the cremation was done. However, the minister refused to participate in the last rites, leading to further tension in Udaypura. Later, the body was cremated by the brother of the deceased.
Leader of opposition, Ajay Singh of the Congress, said, “The chief minister is protecting his minister by not allowing police to register a case against the family of Rampal Singh.’’ He said “A case of abetment of suicide under Section 306 of IPC should be registered against son of Rampal Singh. Minister should resign.”
Meanwhile, even as Rampal was not available for comment, the BJP state president, Nandkumar Singh Chouhan, came to his rescue, saying, “Why should minister resign as his name is not there in the suicide note?”