The Tribune, January 5, 2003

In-laws booked for harassing woman
Our Correspondent

Kurukshetra, January 4
The local police has registered a criminal case under Sections 406, 498-A and 506/34 of the IPC against a husband, his brother and mother for allegedly intimidating and forcibly administering some poisonous substance to a woman. But, no arrest has been made, so far. According to Dr Dharam Pal Kataria, a resident of Urban Estate, Kurukshetra, his daughter, Pooja, got married to Amit, son of Mr Sunder Dass, a resident of Mahesh Nagar, Ambala Cantonment, November, 2000. Dr Kataria alleged that he had given dowry worth Rs 10 lakh at the time of marriage.

Dr Kataria said he got his younger daughter, Saakshi, married at Rajpura in April, 2001 since then Pooja’s in-laws had been alleging that they were not given an equal amount of dowry as was given to Saakshi. They complained that they were given Rs 4 lakh less. Since then Pooja’s husband, mother-in-law and brother-in-law had been pressurising her to approach her parents and bring the money. Pooja requested her parents through letters and telephone calls to fulfil the demand of her in-laws.

Dr Kataria said he gave Rs 1 lakh in cash to his daughter’s in-laws at their residence at Ambala in June, 2002, Rs 50,000 on the eve of ‘Raksha Bandhan’ and Rs 50,000 on Bhai Dooj in 2002 and invested Rs 2 lakh on RBI bonds in the name of his daughter for a fixed term. Still, he alleged that her in-laws were not satisfied and they misbehaved and tortured Pooja on December 26, 2002 and compelled her to telephone him for bringing Rs 2 lakh on December 7, 2002.

Dr Kataria said when, he along with Mr Bhim Sen’s son, Rakesh, went to the residence of Pooja’s in-laws at 7 a.m. on December 27, he saw that her husband, Amit, mother-in-law, Sarla, and brother-in-law, Bobby, were torturing her and had forcibly administered some poisonous substance to her. He said both of them saved her life by immediately bringing Pooja to Kurukshetra and admitting her to a private nursing home. Dr Kataria alleged that Pooja’s in-laws had also injured him on the occasion.