Bhubaneswar, Nov. 4: The wife of former Odisha Ranji cricketer Sanjay Kumar Satpathy has accused him of torturing her for dowry.
Twenty-seven-year-old Swapna Rani Satpathy, who married the cricketer, in February last year, lodged a complaint at Mahila police station here last night. She said Sanjay had been torturing her both mentally and physically and that her in-laws had been keeping their 10-month-old son away from her.
The Mahila police has registered a case under Sections 498 (A) (torture by in-laws), 294 (use of obscene language), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act.
Swapna, a civil engineer working for a private construction company in Bhubaneswar, said the cricketer began torturing her soon after marriage. She stayed with her husband and in-laws at Madhusudan Nagar in Bhubaneswar.
Her father Sarbeswar Upadhyaya, a retired Mahanadi Coalfields Limited employee, said they had met the dowry demands of Sanjay’s family at the time of the wedding. “We had given them Rs 2 lakh in cash. After the wedding, he asked for Rs 2 lakh more. Then he began torturing my daughter,” said the father.
Swapna’s mother Swarnalata said her daughter’s in-laws abused her physically and mentally and that they were keeping her son away from her.
“Four months ago, Sanjay left my daughter and her son at our house. After 15 days, he came and took the child away without informing us. We took Swapna to her in-laws’ house because she was crying for her child,” said Swarnalata.
The complainant’s family, who are from Nirmala village near Pipili, said Swapna’s in-laws initially allowed her to stay with them. But 15 days ago, they again left Swapna at her parents’ house. They took away the child and stopped communicating with her.
“Police wanted to talk to our son-in-law, but he did not receive their phone calls. Later, his brother came to the police station and threatened us,” said Swapna’s mother, demanding that the child must immediately be returned to the mother.
The police conducted raids at the Madhusudan Nagar residence of the cricketer and his parental house at Rupdeipur village in Balanga area of Puri district but could not find him. “We are conducting raids and hope to arrest him soon,” said Anita Pradhan, in charge of the Mahila police station.
The cricketer and his brother could not be contacted for their comments.
Sanjay, who is currently employed with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), was the second most successful bowler of the Odisha Ranji team after Debashis Mohanty. The right-arm-off-break bowler played 63 first class matches and took 208 wickets before being dropped from the team in the 2008-09 Ranji season.
He has represented the state team in all formats of domestic cricket. In 1999, he had represented India A team against New Zealand in Pune. He had received the best spinner of India award from MAC Spin Foundation, Chennai, in 1998 and was awarded cricketer of the Year in 1999 by the directorate of sports of the state government.
On August 30, 2009, Odisha Cricket Association banned him for a year from all types of official cricket on charges of giving “false and baseless statements” against the association to the media.
