A JDU leader in Muzaffarpur has been accused of killing his daughter-in-law for dowry and tampering with evidence.
A day after chief minister Nitish Kumar launched his war on dowry and child marriage on Monday, state JDU organisational secretary Arun Kushwaha and his family members were charged with killing Meena Devi, wife of the leader's second son Deepak Kumar.
Mahesh Bhagat, a resident of Belka village in Vaishali, lodged the FIR on Tuesday after he received information that Kushwaha and his family had killed his daughter Reena and disposed of the body without informing him. Bhagat alleged that his daughter's in-laws harassed Reena, mother of an 11-month-old child, for dowry. 'On Tuesday, I received information from some local residents that my daughter had been killed and her body disposed of by the family,' Bhagat told the police. 'When I visited her in-laws' house, I didn't find my daughter's remains and was told by the neighbours that she had been murdered for dowry.'
Reena was married off to Deepak, a resident of Karja Tola, around 25km from Muzaffarpur town and 80km north of Patna, in 2015. Her family gave the in-laws cash, jewellery and other valuables.
Karja police station house officer Ram Balak Yadav said a case under sections 304B (dowry death), 201 and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code has been lodged against Arun Kushwaha, his sons Deepak Kumar and Sandip Kumar and wife Asha Devi.
Kushwaha denied the charges levelled against them. 'Reena was sick for the past six months and she was undergoing treatment. On Navami, she observed fast and when her condition deteriorated, Deepak took her to Muzaffarpur (town) for treatment but she died on the way to the hospital,' the JDU leader told The Telegraph over phone. 'We completed the final rites in the town and came back. I had sent word to her father through relatives.'
Kushwaha also denied that Reena was harassed for dowry. 'Such allegations are baseless,' he said.
The SHO said the allegations against the JDU leader and his kin were being verified. 'Action will be taken on the basis of evidences against the accused,' he said.
Bihar ranks second in the country after Uttar Pradesh in dowry cases. In 2016, 987 cases of dowry deaths were reported in Bihar along with 4,852 cases of dowry-related atrocities.
