‘Meri laado beti chali gayi’: A mother’s anguish after daughter ‘burnt to death for dowry’ in Greater Noida

Manju is sitting on a bed, covering her face with a light green dupatta. She looks exhausted. “She has been crying for so long,’’ a middle-aged woman says as she pleads with her to eat a few morsels. “It is a big tragedy… it is a murder… a daughter has been burnt to death”.

The tragedy isn’t only Nikki’s death, it is also that the young woman was consistently encouraged to tolerate the alleged abuse by her husband and in-laws. “We knew that they had been assaulting my sister,” Nikki’s younger brother Atul Payla, 20, says. “We tried to sort out the issue earlier”.

The men of the village have gathered in the courtyard to comfort Nikki’s father, Bikhari Singh Payla. “The last time there was a similar gathering in our home was during her (Nikki’s) wedding in 2016,’’ Atul recalls.

It was on December 9, 2016, when Nikki (then 18 years old) and her older sister Kanchan were married to two brothers – Vipin and Rohit Bhati. They were sons of Satyaveer, who ran a grocery store from his house in Sirsa, nearly 30 minutes away from this village.

“My brother sold his land to get both his daughters married in the same mandap. It was the biggest wedding that this village has ever seen. He spent over Rs 80 lakh on the wedding,” recalls Ashok Payla, 40, Nikki’s uncle.

Ashok says that the proposal for the marriage came through a relative, who knew both the families. “Satyaveer’s sons were still studying in college. There was nothing unusual about it (the proposal). This is how marriages are fixed in our culture. We are Gurjar.”

Ashok says that the family gifted a Scorpio car, jewellery worth more than Rs 10 lakh.

Rohit and Kanchan have two children, a son and a daughter while Nikki and Vipin have a six-year-old son.

Nikki’s father remembers when the marriage proposal came. “We knew Satyaveer’s family was well to do. So when he sent the proposal, we felt it was a good idea… it felt safer,” he recalls. “We didn’t anticipate it would end like this”.

“My daughters wanted to work, stand on their own feet. They decided to pursue a beautician course. I supported them. Two years ago, they completed the course and started a beauty parlour. I gave them Rs 1.50 lakh to install an air conditioner and other items that were needed for the parlour’’ Bikhari recalls. “She (Nikki) never told me there was a problem. Neither did Kanchan”.

He says that the only concern Nikki would show was regarding his health. “She would call me twice every day. She would ask me whether I took my food and medicine on time,” Bikhari remembers, his eyes welling up. “I have lost my daughter. When Kanchan called me that they had burnt her, I knew my world was over”.

What went wrong?

“It all began with the beauty parlour,” Nikki’s aunt, Manoj says. “The sisters had started to earn good money at the parlour. Vipin would repeatedly ask her to give all the money to his mother. He would torture her… and whenever she wanted to buy products needed in the parlour, he would force her to make her father pay it,’’ she says.

Apart from Kanchan, Nikki has two other siblings. Her brothers Atul and Rohit run a business of decorating luxury cars for weddings.

“They (Nikki and Kanchan’s in-laws) wouldn’t ask for money directly. They would instead torture my sisters, especially Nikki. We knew they would assault her,’’ Atul says.

In February, Atul says his father asked Rohit to bring Kanchan and Nikki, along with their three children, home. “He was upset. He asked me to go to their house and bring our sisters home. He told me not to say a word to anyone in the family,” Atul says.

For the next two months, they stayed at Roopwas. Then, a meeting of the panchayat was called, where the elders of both families met to address this issue.

Ashok recalls, “Uss time Vipin ne mere bhai pair chhuye the, maafi maangi thi aur bola tha ki kabhi phir hath nahi uthayega. Humne unke sath Nikki aur Kanchan ko bhej diya. (Vipin touched my brother’s feet… He asked for forgiveness. He promised that he would never raise his hand against Nikki again. This is when we let them (Nikki and Kanchan) go back).”

“Hum log Gurjar samaj se hain. Jab byahi betiyan ghar mein rehti hain toh log tarah-tarah ki baatein karte hain. Unse hi toh izzat hai samaaj main. Nikki bhut samjhdar thi, uske baad kabhi koi shikayat nahi ki usne. (We are the Gurjar community. When married daughters come back home, people talk. They are our honour in the society. Nikki was wise, she never complained again),” says Ashok.

“On Sunday, Kanchan wasn’t at home. “She was admitted to a hospital because her blood pressure kept rising,’’ Manoj says.

“The children are very young. They were getting affected so we sent them to our neighbour’s house nearby.”

The last time Nikki visited her parent’s home was for Raksha Bandhan (on August 9). “My daughter gifted me this salwar suit. She shaped my eyebrows. I told her I was now old and I don’t need this beauty treatment. But she wouldn’t listen. She insisted. She was my beautiful daughter,” remembers Manju.

Everyone in the room started to wail.

“Who is going to bring my daughter back? She was good at everything she did… my dove-like daughter flew away.”