Man's suicide leads to uproar over dowry law in India

On the night of December 9, a 34-year-old Indian man killed himself. Next to his body was a sign that read, “Justice is deserved.”

Atul Subhash left a detailed 24-page suicide note and an 81-minute video in which he blamed the problem in his marriage and divorce proceedings.

The letter and video, containing painful details about his life, spread on social media and sparked outrage.

The software engineer from the southern city of Bengaluru accused his estranged wife Nikita Singhania, her mother and her brother of constant harassment and torture, accusations that everyone denied. The three were arrested a few days later and the court ordered them detained for 14 days.

News of Subhash's tragic death also galvanized men's rights activists and started a broader debate about India's strict dowry law, which was designed to protect women from harassment and even murder.

But many say that with divorce cases steadily rising, the law is now being abused by women to harass their husbands, and even force them to kill themselves. India's Supreme Court also considered the matter, with one judge calling it “legal terrorism” “intended to be used as a shield and not as a weapon for an assassin.”

However, women's rights activists point out that demands from husbands' families to pay large dowries still kill thousands of women every year.

Subhash and Singhania married in 2019, but they had been living separately for three years, and Subhash said he was not allowed to meet their four-year-old son. He claimed that his wife filed “false lawsuits” accusing him of cruelty, dowry harassment and various other violations.

In the video, he accused Singhania's family of “blackmail” and said they had demanded 30 million rupees ($352,675; £279,661) to withdraw the cases, three million rupees for visitation rights for their son, and asked for the monthly alimony to be raised from 40,000 rupees to 30,000 rupees. 200,000 rupees.

Then he talked about the dozens of long trips he had made over the past few years to attend court sessions and accused one of the judges of harassing him, demanding bribes from him, and mocking him. A memorandum apparently issued by the judge refers to the accusations as “baseless, immoral and defamatory.”

News of the suicide sparked a storm of protests in several cities. Many took to social media to demand justice for Subhash.

They said his suicide should be treated as a murder case and targeted Singhania and demanded that she be arrested and sent to prison for life.

On X (formerly Twitter), thousands tagged the name of the American multinational company where she worked, demanding her dismissal.

Following the outrage, police in Bengaluru opened an investigation against the people named in the suicide note. On December 14, Singhania, her mother and brother were arrested on charges of “incitement to suicide.”

During interrogation, Singhania denied the allegation that she was harassing Subhash for money. Times of India The police were quoted as saying.

In the past, Singhania had also leveled serious accusations against her husband. In its 2022 petition for DivorceShe had accused him, his parents and his brother of harassing her over the dowry. She said that they were not satisfied with the gifts given by her parents during the wedding and demanded an additional Rs 1 million.

Dowries have been banned in India since 1961, but the bride's family is still expected to give gifts of cash, clothes and jewelry to the groom's family. According to A Recent study90% of Indian marriages include them, and payments between 1950 and 1999 amounted to a quarter of a trillion dollars.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 35,493 brides were killed in India between 2017 and 2022 – an average of 20 women a day – over dowry demands, sometimes even years after the wedding. In 2022 alone, more than 6,450 brides were killed over dowry, an average of 18 women per day.

Singhania claimed that her father died of a heart attack soon after her wedding when Subhash's parents went to him to demand money. She also alleged that her husband was threatening her and “beating me after drinking alcohol and treating the husband-wife relationship like a monster” by demanding unnatural sex. Subhash denied all these accusations.

Police say they are still investigating these allegations and counter-allegations, but Subhash's suicide has led to growing calls to rewrite – and even repeal – India's strict anti-dowry law – Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.

The law was introduced in 1983 after a spate of dowry deaths in Delhi and elsewhere in the country. There were daily reports of brides being burned to death by their husbands and in-laws, and the murders were often considered “kitchen accidents.” Angry protests organized by female MPs and activists forced Parliament to approve the law.

As lawyer Sukriti Chauhan says, “the law came after a long and arduous battle” and “allows women to seek justice in cases of cruelty in their marital homes.”

But over the years, the law has repeatedly made headlines, with men's activists saying women are misusing it to harass their husbands and relatives.

The Supreme Court of India has also warned against misuse of the law on numerous occasions. On the day Subhash's suicide was reported, the Supreme Court again pointed out – in an unrelated case – the “increasing tendency to misuse this provision as a tool to unleash personal vendetta against the husband and his family”.

Amit Deshpande, founder of Mumbai-based men's rights organization Vaastav, says the law is used “mostly to blackmail men” and that “there are thousands more suffering like Subhash”.

He says their helpline number receives about 86,000 calls annually, and most of the cases revolve around marital disputes, including fake dowry issues and blackmail attempts.

“A cottage industry has been built around the law. In each case, 18 to 20 people are named as accused, and they all have to hire lawyers and go to court to seek bail. There have been cases where a two-month-old baby or a non-elderly patient was named in complaints Dowry harassment.

“I know these are extreme examples, but somehow the whole system allows this,” he says. “The police, the judiciary and the politicians turn a blind eye to our concerns.”

Deshpande says that according to more than 50 years of government crime data, the vast majority of male suicides were at the hands of married men – with family discord accounting for one in four of them.

Patriarchy also works against men, he says. “Women resort to laws and get sympathy, but people laugh at men who are harassed or beaten by their wives. If Subhash were a woman, he could have resorted to certain laws. So, let us make laws gender neutral and extend justice to men so that lives can be saved.” “.

He added that punishment for those who misuse the law must also be tougher, otherwise it will not be a deterrent.

Ms Chauhan agrees that women who abuse the law should be punished, but says any law can be abused. She says the Bengaluru case is before the court and if it is proven to be a false case, it should be punished.

“But I do not support it becoming gender neutral. The demand for it is regressive because it ignores the need for special measures that recognize that women are disproportionately affected by violence.”

She says those seeking Section 498A are “motivated by patriarchy and because it is a women's law, attempts are being made to overturn it.”

“This came after years of societal patriarchal injustice. This patriarchal authority remains the reality of our generation and will continue for generations to come.”

She says that despite the law, the demand for dowries is rampant, and thousands of brides are still killed because of the law.

She adds that the need now is to “strengthen the law.”

“If three out of every ten cases are false, the courts should impose punishment. But women still suffer badly in this country, so don’t demand the law be repealed.”

Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, twitter and Facebook.

BBC action line

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, a list of groups offering help and advice is available from BBC action line