Russian woman sits on hunger strike for ‘torture over dowry’

WATCH VIDEO: Russian Daughter-In-Law From Agra Thanks Sushma Swaraj For Taking Prompt Action

In her complaint to the police, Olga alleged that her mother-in-law Nirmala Chandel tortures her mentally for not bringing dowry and has refused to let them into the house.

“My mother-in-law mentally tortures me for being a foreigner and pressures me for dowry. She has kicked me out of the home along with my daughter and my husband,” said Olga, who speaks fluent Hindi. Her husband told police that his mother has given his share of property to his elder sister Saumya Pal, who lives in New Delhi.

[related-post]

e station, A K Singh, told The Indian Express that “it’s a family dispute over property”. Police have registered an FIR against Nirmala Chandel, her brother Rajendra Milind, daughter Saumya Pal and one other relative under IPC sections 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace).

Nirmala, however, accused Olga of “gambling and consuming drugs” and of taking away whatever money she saves. Police said Nirmala does not claim to be owner of the house, which belongs to her daughter.

Olga, meanwhile, has demanded share in her husband’s property and claimed she has nowhere else to go. A postgraduate in Chinese philosophy from the Russian State University in Moscow, Olga has started a hunger strike outside her husband’s residence in Agra.