Jaigaon, April 4: The parents of an alleged dowry death victim have started an indefinite fast in front of the Banarhat police station demanding the arrest of the woman’s mother-in-law.

Police had arrested the husband and the father-in-law after the victim’s parents filed an FIR, but failed to catch the mother-in-law, the alleged mastermind.

“Arpita, our only child, was married to Sital Dey of Telipara in January last year. I sold two cottahs of land and took loans from neighbours to pay a dowry of Rs 1.75 lakh. Sital runs a grocery store and owns a truck,” said Shankar Raha Roy, the father, who lives in Dhupguri.

Shankar added that two months after the marriage, Arpita’s in-laws began demanding Rs 60,000 more. “They would constantly torture Arpita and in August, I handed over Rs 10,000 to them,” said the father.

“On March 10 this year, a neighbour of the Deys called me up to say that my daughter was not well. I gathered some of my neighbours and went to the Birpara hospital, where I found my daughter dead,” said Shankar. The Deys’ neighbours allegedly told him that Sital and his parents had choked her to death and then hung her from the ceiling to make it look like a suicide.

Shankar and his wife had filed an FIR with the Banarhat police station on March 11. “We will not break our fast till the mother-in-law, Sabita Dey, is arrested and all three are given exemplary punishment,” said Gouri, Arpita’s mother.

The police said Sabita would be arrested soon.