A chartered accountant homemaker was found dead in her in-laws’ house on Sunday, her parents accusing her engineer husband and his father of murdering her.

Howrah resident Shyambabu Shaw has lodged a complaint with Posta police station alleging that her 34-year-old daughter, Nitu, was often tortured by her father-in-law Bandhu Gupta and husband Siddhartha for dowry.

Police said Nitu, a chartered accountant, was married to Siddhartha, a software engineer, on January 26, 2004. The woman leaves behind a three-year-old son.

“The preliminary post-mortem report suggests that it was a case of suicidal hanging. We are probing the complaint lodged by the woman’s father,” said an officer.

Shaw mentioned in his complaint that Bandhu Gupta had called him on Sunday afternoon, saying Nitu had committed suicide by hanging from the ceiling of her bedroom.

“When I reached the Guptas’ house in Posta, Nitu was lying dead on her bed. I asked my son-in-law and his father why the body was on the bed but they could not give a satisfactory reply,” said Shaw.

“I spoke to Nitu over the phone twice on Monday, at 11.30am and 1pm. On both occasions, she told me her husband and father-in-law were torturing her physically and mentally for dowry. She said they were demanding Rs 10 lakh. I told her to keep her cool and that I would talk to her father-in-law,” Shaw recalled.

He claimed that he had given the Guptas Rs 3 lakh — apart from ornaments, furniture and other valuables — as dowry.