The former minister's daughter-in-law Barsa Swony Choudhury alleges her in-laws had physically and mentally tortured her ever since she married Mohanty's son in June last year
BHUBANESWAR, March 30 (TrustLaw) - A former minister in India’s eastern state of Odisha has been arrested along with his wife on Saturday, police said, over a fortnight after their daughter-in-law accused them of torturing her for dowry and forcing his resignation from government.
Former Law and Urban Development Minister Raghunath Mohanty, and his wife were arrested on charges of dowry harassment from an apartment in Kolkata city, 610 km (380 miles) northeast of Odisha's capital Bhubaneswar.
"They had hired an apartment and were hiding in that apartment. We managed to arrest them at about 3.30 a.m.," Odisha's Additional Director-General of Police (Human Rights Protection Cell) B.K. Sharma told TrustLaw.
The former minister's daughter-in-law Barsa Swony Choudhury alleges her in-laws had physically and mentally tortured her ever since she married Mohanty's son in June last year. She said they were by demanding 2.5 million rupees ($45,920) and a car.
Sixty-four-year-old Mohanty, who has denied all charges resigned from the state cabinet on March 14 following the charges.
Police arrested his son three days later but had not arrested Mohanty and his wife until now.
Dowries, often in the form of jewellery, clothing, cars and money, are given in India by the bride's family to the groom and his parents at the time of marriage.
The custom, banned decades ago but still widely practised, is often exploited with the groom's family demanding more money after marriage, leading to mental and sometimes physical abuse. In some cases, the woman commits suicide or she is murdered.
There were 8,618 cases of dowry-related deaths and 99,135 cases of torture and cruelty towards women by their husbands or family in 2011, according to latest figures from India's National Crime Records Bureau.
(Editing by Nita Bhalla)
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