Husband, father-in-law of UT nurse who died by suicide arrested for abetment

The duo was produced in a local court later that sent them to 14 days of judicial custody in Model Burail Jail.

The victim, identified as Vibhuti Sharma, 27, had been found hanging insider her Shastri Nagar residence in Mani Majra on Saturday last week. The woman, police had later said, worked as a nurse at a private hospital in Sector 25 Panchkula, while her husband, Sumit Sharma, worked with a private insurance firm. The couple had got married in February, 2022.

Vibhuti’s mother, Sarla Sharma, a resident of Kurali, had reported to the police that her daughter was being harassed for dowry ever since her marriage. She had further told the police in a complaint that a few months ago Vibhuti had called her to say that her husband and her in-laws had tried to kill her by pushing her down from a roof. She somehow had managed to survive then.

A police officer said that Sarla in her complaint to them after the incident had said that Sumit had called right after the incident last week and informed that Vibhuti had allegedly died by suicide. Sarla in turn asked Sumit why he was calling her and not the police, to which he had no answer.

Later, when a police team had reached the house on Saturday, they had found that the body of the victim had been brought down by the family members, laid on the bed, and the dupatta with which she allegedly killed herself, removed from her neck. The police had proceeded to then seize the dupatta and send the body for an autopsy to GMCH-32.

On being quizzed, the family of the victim had told the police that Vibhuti had allegedly locked the door from inside before taking the extreme step and they could enter the room only after breaking the door. The body was handed over to the victim’s maternal family after the autopsy.

Station Head Officer of IT Park Police Station, Inspector Rohtash Yadav, said, “The initial autopsy report suggests that it was a suicide. We lodged a case on Monday after receiving a complaint from the woman’s mother. The woman’s husband and father-in-law have been arrested. Further investigations in the case is on.”

A case under sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 498A (dowry harrasment), and 34 (common intention) has been registered at IT Park Police Station.