Dowry

The investigation into the suspected dowry death of Nikki Bhati has taken a new turn after the recovery of an inflammable substance from her room and the emergence of fresh video clips, prompting police to revisit the timeline of the August 21 incident, a senior officer said on Wednesday. The officer, who is part of the probe, said the inflammable solution found in Nikki's room has been sent for forensic analysis. Police are also collating and examining multiple short video clips, which are surfacing in the public domain in connection with the August 21 incident. The new findings seem to mark a shift from earlier allegations that Nikki (26) was set on fire with a flammable liquid by her husband Vipin Bhati and his family. Police will also re-examine the statement of Nikki's sister Kanchan, who shot a video of the alleged incident, lodged the FIR and claimed to have tried to intervene in the matter. Kanchan is married to Nikki's brother-in-law, Rohit Bhati. Vipin, Rohit, Nikki's ..

The father-in-law and brother-in-law of Nikki Bhati, the 26-year-old woman who was allegedly burnt alive over dowry demands in Greater Noida, have been arrested, police said on Monday. The accused, identified as Satveer Bhati (55) and Rohit Bhati (28), were arrested by Kasna Police near Sirsa Toll Chauraha following a tip-off and manual intelligence inputs, the police said in a statement. An official told PTI that both the arrests were made separately with some time difference between the two. Nikki's husband Vipin Bhati, brother Rohit, mother and father are among those mentioned as accused in the FIR. All four have been arrested. A case had been registered against the four at Kasna Police Station on August 22 under sections 103(1) (murder), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), and 61(2) (attempting to commit offences punishable with life imprisonment or others) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Police said Rohit had been absconding since the incident that sparked outrage across the .

From dowry demands to her plan to reopen a beauty parlour, multiple triggers emerged in the murder of 26-year-old Nikki Bhati, whose husband Vipin is now in judicial custody

The Commission has emphasised the need for a fair and prompt investigation and directed that adequate security be provided to the victim's family and witnesses

The man accused of setting his wife on fire over dowry was shot in leg on Sunday while escaping custody, police said. Vipin Bhati was arrested Saturday after he was caught on video allegedly assaulting and dragging by her hair his wife, Nikki, in a Greater Noida house. Nikki was allegedly set on fire by Bhati. She died on the way to a hospital. Two videos of the horrifying incident made rounds on the internet. One of them showed a man and woman assaulting the woman and dragging her out of the house by her hair. The other showed the woman limping down the stairs after being set on fire. Kanchan, the elder sister of Nikki, who is married in the same family, made a video of the incident that occurred in Sirsa village, under the limits of Kasna Police Station.

A woman was allegedly assaulted, dragged by her hair and set ablaze by her in-laws in front of her sister and son in Greater Noida. Her husband has been arrested while a hunt is on to nab others, police said on Saturday. Meri mumma ke upar kuch dala, fir unko chanta mara fir lighter se aag laga di. (they poured something on my mother, slapped her and set her ablaze using a lighter), said the victim's son (aged around six) who witnessed the incident that happened on Thursday night. Two videos of the horrifying incident are making rounds on the internet. In one of the videos, a man and woman can be seen assaulting the victim and dragging her out of the house by her hair. The other video shows the woman limping down the stairs after being set on fire. Kanchan, the elder sister of the victim identified as Nikki (in her mid 30s), who was married in the same family had captured the video of the incident that occurred in Sirsa village, under the limits of Kasna Police Station in Greater ..

A Delhi court has said every article given at the time of marriage cannot be called stridhan (woman's property) and dismissed a woman's plea seeking return of her articles, including a car. Judicial magistrate Sonika was hearing an application filed by the woman under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act. Stridhan is movable or immovable assets, received during the lifetime, by a woman either prior to marriage or at the time of marriage or at childbirth. In an order on July 12, the court held, "Upon perusal of the record, including the documents annexed with the present application, at this stage, it cannot be concluded that all the articles, including the car, as mentioned in the list of dowry articles annexed with the present application were given as the stridhan articles of the petitioner." It said there was no prima facie evidence, such as bills, photographs, or affidavits of witnesses, to prove the ownership. The order added, "Moreover, each and every article g

NCW Chairperson, wrote to the DGP, Tamil Nadu, asking for a prompt and fair investigation under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961

In a case filed by BSP chief Mayawati's niece, an FIR was registered against Hapur Municipal Council Chairperson and six of her family members on charges of domestic violence, dowry harassment and sexual harassment on Thursday following a court directive, police said on Thursday. The woman married Vishal, son of Hapur Municipal Council Chairperson Pushpa Devi on November 9, 2023, said Rajeev Sharma, an advocate representing the complainant. "Since the marriage, the accused family allegedly used their political clout to demand a party ticket, Rs 50 lakh in cash and a flat as dowry," Sharma said. The complainant has further alleged that her husband used steroids for bodybuilding, which rendered him medically unfit for conjugal life. Frequent arguments followed, and on February 17, 2025, her father-in-law and brother-in-law allegedly attempted to sexually assault her, she said. After this, she returned to her parental home, the lawyer said. Despite lodging a complaint with the police

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging certain provisions of the Dowry Prohibition Act and alleging misuse of women-centric laws. "You can go and raise all these grounds in Parliament," a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran told the counsel appearing for the petitioner. The petitioner's counsel said they were seeking to challenge certain provisions of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, including sections 2 and 3. While section 2 of the Act deals with definition of dowry, section 3 pertains to penalty for giving or taking dowry. The counsel said the petitioner was concerned about these laws which adversely impacts men. The public interest litigation (PIL) names laws like the Dowry Prohibition Act, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, and the provision on cruelty to women in the erstwhile Indian Penal Code to question their validity. The plea filed by petitioner Rupshi Singh highlighted the alleged malice in law, the unreasonableness cont

The Supreme Court raises concerns over the growing misuse of Section 498A of the IPC following the tragic suicide of a Bengaluru techie

The Allahabad High Court has held that appointment to a government post cannot be denied to a candidate merely because he has been implicated in a dowry case. Justice J J Munir observed, "Given the social conditions prevalent in society, while women do become victims of cruelty in their matrimonial homes, it is equally true, and by now, judicially acknowledged, that for slight or no infraction, the entire family of the husband is either reported to the police or brought before the criminal court by a disenchanted wife or her relatives, alleging cruelty." "Should in a case like this, a candidate selected for his merit through a public examination, who otherwise has a clean image and is part of the mainstream society, be banished from the privileges of public employment?" the court added. Petitioner Baba Singh had applied for the post of assistant boring technician in the Minor Irrigation Department of Uttar Pradesh. He appeared in the relevant examination and cleared it. He was then

Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal told his audience that his team has "simplified the process to calculate dowry" by launching an artificial intelligence-based dowry calculator

The court noted that meticulous documentation of gifts prevents both parties and their families from levelling baseless allegations of dowry transactions post-marriage

The female employee will be eligible to nominate their children to receive family pension before the spouse if there is a pending divorce, domestic violence or dowry case in any court

The National Commission for Women (NCW) registered 28,811 complaints of crime against women last year and about 55 per cent were from Uttar Pradesh. The highest number of complaints were received in the right to dignity category that involves harassment other than domestic violence and it stood at 8,540, according to NCW data. This was followed by 6,274 complaints of domestic violence. Dowry harassment complaints stood at 4,797, molestation complaints at 2,349, police apathy against women complaints at 1,618, and rape and attempt to rape complaints at 1,537, the data showed. There were 805 complaints of sexual harassment, 605 of cyber crime, 472 of stalking and 409 of honour crimes, it stated. Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of complaints at 16,109 followed by Delhi 2,411, Maharashtra at 1,343, according to the data. Bihar recorded 1,312 complaints, Madhya Pradesh 1,165, Haryana 1,115, Rajasthan 1,011, Tamil Nadu 608, West Bengal 569 and Karnataka 501. The number of ...

False allegations of dowry harassment or rape lodged by a woman against the husband's family members amounts to "extreme cruelty" which cannot be condoned, the Delhi High Court has said. The high court also said that the bedrock of any matrimonial relationship is cohabitation and conjugal relationship and for a couple to be deprived of each other's company, proves the marriage cannot survive and such deprivation of conjugal relationship is an act of extreme cruelty. The court's observations came while dismissing a woman's appeal challenging a family court's order granting divorce decree in favour of her estranged husband on the grounds of cruelty. In the present case, indisputably parties are residing separately since 2014 which proves that they are unable to sustain matrimonial relationship thereby depriving each other from mutual companionship and conjugal relationship. Such separation of almost nine years is an instance of utmost mental cruelty, asking for immediate severance of

The Calcutta High Court said that Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code had been introduced to strike out the dowry menace from the society

Sudarshana said that her husband Vikramaditya mentioned several times that she did not bring dowry according to his status

About 20 dowry deaths were reported every day in the country between 2017 and 2021, with Uttar Pradesh recording the highest at six deaths daily. According to data shared by Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra in Rajya Sabha, 35,493 dowry deaths were reported in the country between 2017 and 2021. In 2017, 7,466 dowry deaths were reported, 7,167 in 2018, 7,141 in 2019, 6,966 in 2020 and 6,753 in 2021, he said replying to a written question. The highest 11,874 dowry deaths were reported in Uttar Pradesh in those five years, which accounted for about six deaths every day. Between 2017 and 2021, there were 5,354 dowry deaths in Bihar, 2,859 in Madhya Pradesh, 2,389 in West Bengal and 2,244 in Rajasthan, Mishra said.