Pune, Nov 3 (PTI) A 34-year-old woman was found hanging in a flat in Pune, prompting police to arrest her husband after her relatives accused him and his parents of harassing her over demands for gold, officials said.
The police have registered a case of abetment of suicide. Her relatives, however, allege she was murdered, and her husband and in-laws hanged her body in the flat in Mukund Nagar, located near their matrimonial bungalow.
The deceased, identified as Payal Zambre Patil, had earlier worked as an IT professional, but later quit her job, a police official said on Monday.
Following her death, her relatives allegedly ransacked her in-laws' house.
Payal was married to Akshay Zambre Patil. The couple has a daughter.
Citing claims of Payal's relatives, police alleged that she had a quarrel with her mother-in-law on Sunday and left home.
"Members of her in-laws' family and her relatives began searching for her on Monday morning. During the search, she was found hanging in a room of a flat in an apartment complex near their (matrimonial) residence. No suicide note was found," a Swargate police station official said.
He said Payal was found hanging from the ceiling when police reached the apartment.
"Statements of her maternal relatives are being recorded," he added.
Payal's brother Rishikesh Pawar alleged that her in-laws and husband appeared unbothered when he reached their home on Monday morning.
"When I reached there, her father-in-law, mother-in-law and husband were sitting idle and appeared unbothered. When we questioned them, they got up to search for Payal.
"Within five minutes, they returned and informed us that she was in a nearby apartment. When we reached the flat, its door was locked from inside. I somehow managed to enter through the rear balcony and found Payal hanging," he said.
Rishikesh claimed Payal had often complained about harassment by her mother-in-law.
"There was a quarrel between Payal and her mother-in-law on Sunday. I called her husband and told him that it was a temporary dispute which could be resolved," he said, adding that he received a call from her in-laws on Monday morning informing him that Payal had left the house the previous night.
Payal's uncle alleged that it was a murder and accused her husband and in-laws of killing her and hanging the body in the apartment.
"Since her marriage, Payal was being harassed by her mother-in-law. Every Diwali, we were asked to fulfil a demand for ten tolas of gold," he alleged.
"This year too, they demanded gold, but we told them that we were farmers and, given the drought-like situation, it was not possible for us to meet the demand. We had even promised to give the gold next year," he claimed.
As per the police complaint lodged by her family, when Payal was pregnant in 2022, her husband and in-laws pressured her for a male child and subjected her to mental harassment.
After she gave birth to a girl on March 30, 2023, her in-laws visited the hospital, allegedly argued with her and said they would not take responsibility for either her or the child, the complaint stated.
A case has been registered against Payal’s mother-in-law, father-in-law, and husband for alleged abetment of suicide, Swargate police station's senior inspector Yashwant Nikam told PTI.
"Akshay has been arrested. Two police teams have been formed to trace the other accused," he said.
(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)