Woman beaten to death by in-laws for dowry

Kolkata: A 19-year-old woman was allegedly killed by her in-laws here on Saturday. Local residents caught them red-handed while they were trying to dispose of the body.

According to local residents, Arpita Sen of Joynagar got married to Sanjay Sen of Pravat Pally in Narendrapur approximately one year ago.

It is alleged that the Arpita's in-laws had received a lot of money and jewellery as dowry at the time of marriage. But they kept torturing her for more money. A source informed that recently Arpita's in-laws had demanded Rs 2 lakh from her. She had also informed her father about her in-laws' demand.

Though her father knew about the torture and the demands he only tried to convince his son-in-law to not to torture his daughter. But the convincing did not work.

Despite Arpita's father committed to provide the money, Arpita's in-laws kept torturing her. She was supposed to go to her father's house on Poila Boisakh. But before that on Saturday morning her in-laws started beating her. Some of the neighbours even heard Arpita crying and they reached the house and told Arpita's in-laws not to torture her. But in the afternoon Arpita was beaten up again. This time, she could not bear the torture and reportedly died because of severe physical assault.

In the evening, when Arpita's in-laws tried to remove the body from the house with the possible intention to dump it somewhere, the neighbours saw them.

Immediately, they rushed into house and found Arpita dead. The police were immediately informed.

Local residents claimed that several injury marks could be seen on Arpita's body. Later, three members of the Sen family were arrested on charges of murder and domestic violence. Some neighbours have also ransacked the house of the Sen family demanding stringent action against them.

Despite strict action by the police and strong laws against dowry demand, several deaths due to the social evil are reported from various parts of the country.