Bhubaneswar, March 28: The State Commission for Women today decided to take a suo mottu cognisance of the mysterious death case of Sharmishtha Mohanty, elder daughter-in-law of noted Oriya writer, Pratibha Ray.

“The commission has the right to intervene in any case related to torture of woman,” said Namita Panda, chairperson the commission.

Sharmishtha, a software engineer, died under mysterious condition on March 24, after she fell off her house located on the fifth floor of the Dwarakamai apartments at Hyderabad. She was seven months pregnant.

Her family has been alleging foul play. “She had spoken to me a day before. I could not make out anything when she said she was feeling scared. I thought she was nervous about her pregnancy,” said her maternal uncle Arabinda Mohanty, a city-based paediatric specialist. She was married to Anvesh Ray, eldest son of the Rays in 1998. Both were engineers. A case of unnatural death has been registered at the Banjara Hills police station.

Inspector Shankar Reddy, who is investigating the case, said : “She had been in a condition of depression for the last two and half years. She was being treated by a Hyderabad-based psychiatrist M.S. Reddy. After her pregnancy, she had to stop taking the anti-depression drugs and was showing withdrawal symptoms. She had tried to set herself afire by leaking the kitchen stove on March 23 too.”

Her family, however, alleges she was tortured by her in-laws. Sources close to the family said Pratibha Ray has threatened to file a defamation suit against them. Ray was not available for comments.