Dowry Law Page #3

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is that you should not give

more than Rs. 5,000 of gifts.

Nobody follows that law.

Otherwise-

So that-- that law is ignored?

Otherwise, nobody will be able

to marry his daughter.

Because the rules of the society

are different

and the rules on paper,

they are different.

[Adam]

You've had to borrow to do this,

how many years will it take you

to uh, to pay off your debts?

This will go

all through my life.

[Adam]

Rest of your life?

Yeah.

[Adam]

The wedding, the dowry,

the gifts,

it added up, the Sharmas say,

about 15,000.

And the Singhs

were still going on

about the car,

the Toyota Qualis.

But this car that was what,

part of the dowry?

[man 2]

Toyota Qualis.

They had asked it

before the marriage,

but there we had refused.

But after, right the marriage,

they started behaving

in just the opposite way.

They started saying,

"No, you have to give car.

How will my son travel

without a car?"

[Adam]

The Sharmas say they rejected

the demand again.

Kajal and Anand went to Calcutta

and she completed her studies.

She complained that

Anand was stopping her

from revising for her exams.

She passed them

and they returned to Delhi

and moved

into the Singh family home.

Kajal was still being pressed

for more dowry.

[man 3]

She was crying the day

she called me up

and she was telling that

Anand was creating problems,

and he telling that

"You have to bring the car.

You have to pressurize

your parents."

[Adam]

A day later, the phone rang,

something was seriously wrong.

It was in the evening

of 9th June when her husband,

he called me

and told me to reach their house

as early as possible.

I asked him,

"What is the matter?"

Then he told me

on the telephone.

[Adam]

He told you on the phone?

And he said it

in a very casual sort of--

[Adam]

What did he--

What did he say?

He just said...

[speaks in Hindi]

"We had gone--

I had gone out

and she had not taken

her dinner, she said,

'I don't want to eat.'

So I went out

and when I came back,

I found her hanging."

He just said it

as a matter of fact.

[Adam]

Kajal was dead

hanged in her bedroom.

On the news her father-in-law

was filmed saying,

she'd tied a scarf

round her neck

and then hanged herself

from a door handle.

Kajal's brother, a doctor, said

it couldn't have been suicide.

You must realize that

it was my brother

who first reached there.

He reached there at about 7:00.

Death has taken place

around 3:
00, 3:00 or something.

No police was--

had been called,

not even a medical professional

had been called.

Because you have to see

whether the person

is actually dead or not.

He may be in a state of coma

or something.

My brother only called

the police.

They were not willing

to call the police,

they were just wanting

to take the body and cremate it,

so that all the evidence

was gone.

They had already cut open

the ligatures

and removed the body.

Whatever they say that

she was hanging from there

and she was hanging from there,

that is up to them.

We haven't seen anything.

[Adam]

In spite of getting no help

from the police,

who they think had been bribed,

Kajal's family filed a case

alleging dowry crime.

Anand and his parents

were arrested at their home

and taken away to Tihar Jail.

The investigating judge

appeared to share

the Sharma's suspicions.

So-- so this,

what's it saying here?

Uh, this is not a case

of suicide simply cited,

but has categorical reference

to her harassment

on account of dowry.

So what we've got here is--

is one judge um,

rejecting application

from Dr. Singh

and uh, the rest of the family

for bail.

And then a few days later, uh,

they were released

on a technicality.

[speaking in Hindi]

[Smita interpreting]

"I want justice.

I've made a mistake,

but I'll never make

a mistake again.

I didn't know them,

I didn't recognize them

and I want justice now.

[Adam]

And they feared

justice was slipping away,

because the Singhs

were now out of prison.

We've been trying for days

to talk to the Singhs,

every attempt

to get in touch with them.

We've been told

it's out of the question.

So I've come to their house

to see if they're in.

The Singh family

had spent three months

in Tihar Jail.

Dr BB Singh, a scientist,

had been suspended from his job.

His son, Anand,

had trained abroad as a doctor,

but the qualification

was not accepted in India

and he'd been unable to find

any work.

[dogs barking]

[shouting in Hindi]

Dr. BB Singh,

I'm Adam Mynott from the BBC.

Please just wait.

We've come to talk to you

about...

...About the issue...

We will give you

all the answers.

[Adam]

Well, we-- we--What do you want?

we just wanted

to discuss some of the issues.

You can't take yourself--

[speaking in Hindi]

Please.

We just wanted to discuss

some of the issue--

Thank you, thank you very much.

The Singhs gave me

their version of events

very different from the Sharmas.

No torture, no harassment,

no dowry demands.

She put a-- a scarf,

you know the girls,

they wear a salwar

and this thing

and then put it...

[Adam]

Dr. Singh showed us

how he says

Kajal killed herself.

...with the neck.

She might have sat on this mura

and pushed it back.

When we discovered her body,

her body was not on the floor,

you know, it just

a little above the floor.

So she must have got suffocated,

you know, out of...

Even this was height.

Doctor came

with the crime branch,

they brought the--

all the three doctors.

I mean I'm not

a forensic scientist,

but that-- that means that

there was that--

Yes.

that length of--

I mean it seemed--

it just seems very,

very odd to me.

It seems very strange.

I mean why not hang yourself

if you want to commit suicide--

You see I don't know this.

Why not hang yourself

from the ceiling fan?

Yeah.

Or from a bracket on a wall?

Yeah.

Why do it in a way which--

No, but that I cannot answer.

[Anand]

So only she can answer.

She was the one

to choose this way,

only she can answer

why did she did this way.

I am a doctor,

she was a doctor.

Only she can tell.

How can he or how can I say

why the hell

did she chose this way to die?

I as a doctor can say, yes,

this is sufficient height

for a person to die.

This, any doctor can say.

This is very surprising

her brother herself

is a doctor and--

[Adam]

You-- you-- you--

You were her husband.

Yeah, I am-- I am her husband.

[Adam]

Did it not surprise you

that your wife could get

to this state without you--

without you being aware of it,

without you being aware

of the fact

that she wanted

to commit suicide?

Listen, this is very surprising

for everyone.

This is a surprise

for their family,

this is a surprise

for my family, for me.

Yeah, she used to get

some depression sometimes

after the exams.

Most of the times,

it was only when her brother

used to call her up.

He like, "You've got to study,

you've got to study."

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