Every day, the dowry death case of Nikki Bhati is taking a new turn and the latest was the allegations by the estranged wife of Nikki's brother Rohit who said she herself was harassed for dowry. However, Nikki's father Bhikari Singh Payla has now dismissed the allegations.
Bhikari Singh said his son Rohit Payla never lifted his hand on his daughter-in-law. "Does it ever happen that a family comes to drop their daughter-in-law off at home and attack her family? I have all the evidence. Our doors are always open for her," he told ANI.
Nikki's sister-in-law said she does not believe that Vipin Bhati and his family are guilty in her death. She alleged that Nikki's family used to beat her up for dowry and never allowed her to keep even a mobile phone. She claimed that she spent nine years at her in-law's place and that she ran away to her village due to dowry harassment and has been staying at her own home for the last 14 months.
"In a panchayat, my in-laws were asked to pay ₹35 lakh to me, but they never did. I never met Nikki's in-laws...I want justice," she said.
Nikki and her sister Kanchan were married off to two brothers, Viping and Rohit, in the same family. The two sisters were running a beauty parlour set up using their father's money. "I paid ₹1.5 lakh for it. My daughter was running the parlour and was using that money towards her son's education," Bhikari Singh said earlier.
On the day she died, Nikki asked Vipin to allow her to reopen the beauty parlour, said police. But he insisted that women in the family are not allowed to run business or create social media content. The argument turned physical and Vipin allegedly set her on fire. After suffering severe burns, she died at Safdurjung Hospital in Delhi.
Vipin, Rohit, their parents Satveer Bhati and Daya Bhati have been arrested in the case.