Atul Subhash, who worked as an AI professional, died by suicide on Monday.
Amid the outcry over Bengaluru techie Atul Subhash’s death by suicide over alleged harassment by his wife, Nikita Singhania, details have emerged of a complaint filed by her in 2022, alleging harassment and assault for dowry. Ms Singhania has alleged that he treated the husband-wife relationship “like a beast” and his family’s demand for dowry contributed to her father suffering a stroke and dying.
In his 24-page suicide note, however, Subhash has replied to nearly every allegation made in the complaint.
Ms Singhania filed the complaint in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur – where her family lives – in April 2022 claiming she was harassed and assaulted for dowry. Subhash, his brother and their parents were named as accused.
Apart from the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, the complaint also had charges like cruelty by husband or relatives, assault, and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code.
According to news agency PTI, Nikita said she got married to Subhash on April 26, 2019, and her husband and in-laws were dissatisfied with what her parents gave them during the wedding and demanded Rs 10 lakh more.
“(They) started torturing me physically and mentally for dowry. When I told my parents about the harassment and dowry, my parents explained to me that everything will be fine, listen and keep living with it. But no improvement of any kind came in my husband and in-laws,” she said in the complaint, according to the PTI report.
“My husband started to beat me up after drinking alcohol and started treating the husband-wife relationship with me like a beast. He used to transfer my entire salary from my account to his account by threatening me,” she added.
In his suicide note, however, Subhash states that, according to Ms Singhania, he earned Rs 40 lakh a year as an Artificial Intelligence professional when she left the house in 2021 and Rs 80 lakh after that. He said her claim of his family asking for Rs 10 lakh was “laughable”.
“We demanded Rs 10 lakh dowry is the most laughable allegation. My wife has claimed that I had a CTC of Rs 40 lakhs when she left the house. My wife also claimed that I have a CTC of Rs 80 Lakhs later in the case. Why would a man making Rs 40 or 80 lakhs would ever demand Rs 10 lakhs and leave his wife and child (sic),” he wrote.
On the allegation of him beating his wife, the techie said she had never produced any evidence of this.
“I used to beat her up black and blue after getting drunk. A well built man like me, if decides to beat someone black and blue (sic), would leave a person with broken bones, bleeding and at least some marks. Why did she not produce any photo of it or anyone who is a witness ( we often had a house maid, cook etc),” he wrote in the note.
Father’s Death
In her complaint, Ms Singhania also claimed that, irritated by the words of her in-laws and because of their demand for dowry, her father’s health deteriorated suddenly and he suffered a stroke on August 17, 2019. She said he died during treatment.
In his suicide note, Subhash called this a “poor Bollywood plot” and claimed her father had been undergoing treatment for diabetes and heart disease for 10 years. He said doctors had given Ms Singhania’s father a few months to live.
“Me and my family murdered her father by asking for dowry of Rs 10 lakhs and her father got a heart attack. This is some poor bollywood plot. She has already confessed that her father was suffering from long-term illness in her cross examination. Her father was getting treated from AlIMS for the last 10 years for heart disease, dlabetes etc. Doctors gave him a few months and hence we got married quickly after just a few months after getting connected (sic),” he wrote.
Nikita Singhani, her mother Nisha Singhania, brother Anurag Singhania and uncle Sushil Singhania have been charged with abetment of suicide after Atul Subhash died by suicide in his house in Bengaluru on Monday.
In his note, Subhash had said he was dying by suicide because his wife and her relatives had filed a slew of false cases against him and his family and were trying to get him to pay Rs 2 lakh a month as maintenance for her and the couple’s four-year-old son.
“The more I work hard and become better at my work, the more l and my family will be harassed and extorted and the whole legal system will encourage and help my harassers… Now, with me gone, there won’t be any money and there won’t be any reason to harass my old parents and my brother. I may have destroyed my body but it has saved everything I believe in,” he wrote.