Shocking Dowry Death by forced starvation, victim weighed only 20 kg at the time of her death

March 31, 2019:

The victim, a mother of two, weighed only 20 kg at the time of her death.

The Kerala Women's Commission on Saturday began an inquiry into the suspected dowry killing of a 27-year-old mother of two, by enforced starvation, at her husband's house at Oyur in Kollam district last week.

Doctors later told the police that she appeared small & skeletal. They pronounced her dead & sent her body to the Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, for post-mortem examination.

S. Sreekumar, Sub Inspector, Puyapally, said the autopsy revealed a cruel story. Thushara died of starvation & pneumonia. The doctors counted several blunt forced injuries on her body. There were also scars of healed cuts on her hands.

Thushara, a native of Karunagapally, married Lal in 2013. Her relatives told the police that Thushara’s in-laws repeatedly demanded an additional ₹2 lakh as a “post marriage gift.” Her family was hard-pressed financially & could not meet the demand.

Mr. Sreekumar said Thushara’s family had lost touch with her since 2016. Lal had erected large metal sheets around his 5-cent plot & the neighbours never knew what transpired inside.

Superstition &the practice of occult could be the reasons behind the recent death of Thushara, the 27-year-old who was starved to death by her husband, Chanthu Lal, & mother-in-law at Pooyapally in Kollam.

While the family lived in a temporary structure, there is a well-built temple on the compound which was frequented by tantric people, according to their neighbours.

Whether the woman was tortured & allegedly put on special diet of raw rice & sugar as part of some dark rite was to be investigated, the police said.

‘‘We have charged a case of dowry death & the rest can be confirmed only after investigation. But none of the local people have ever approached the police with any information on the woman or filed a complaint with the police,’’ said an investigating officer.

‘‘Nobody is allowed on the premises apart from the persons practising witchcraft. When we tried to question the constant visit of tantric people & long rituals, they threatened to harm us with black magic,’’ said a neighbour. Source Link