A 30-year-old mechanical engineer committed suicide at her father’s Dhanbad residence on Tuesday evening.

Nimi Kumari was apparently distressed about her strained relationship with her husband Vivek Sharma and constant demands for dowry by her in-laws. A case has been registered against Vivek and his father B.N. Sharma on the basis of a complaint filed by the deceased’s father Prem Prakash, a bank officer.

Nimi, who along with her husband worked for an infrastructure company in Gangtok, Sikkim, in her suicide note said she was ending her life because of torture over dowry by her husband and in-laws.

Originally from Ranchi, Nimi completed her mechanical engineering course from BIT-Mesra in 2007 and married Vivek, a resident of Siliguri, in 2010. However, the couple subsequently separated and Nimi had on an earlier occasion lodged a complaint of torture against her husband and in-laws at Gaya.

Tuesday’s incident came to light around 7pm when Nimi’s brother Amit went to her room to find her hanging from the ceiling fan by her dupatta. “We immediately brought her down and took him to nearby private hospital which refused to admit her and later moved to Patliputra Medical College and Hospital where she was declared brought dead,” said the deceased’s uncle, adding that her in-laws had been demanding Rs 25 lakh as dowry.

According to some family members, Nimi and Vivek were colleagues who married, and then took a transfer together to Sikkim. However, her in-laws never accepted the marriage and often tortured and harassed her for dowry, to the extent that Nimi left Vivek and moved back to her father’s house in Gaya last year. The family shifted to Dhanbad three months ago following Prem Prakash’s transfer.

Nimi had lodged a case against her husband and in-laws with Gaya police last year. Family sources said the deceased had been depressed ever since she spoke to her husband two days ago.