Mysuru: After the daughter of a retired IAS officer filed a complaint of alleged rape and dowry harassment, the advocate of the victim, Capt. Aravind Sharma has said that the reason for harassment was apparently due to  business losses in the family.

Addressing  the media persons here on Tuesday, he said, “The daughter of retired IAS officer who was raped by her brother-in-law began to face dowry harassment soon after her marriage to the younger son of a reputed hospital owner, in the city. What made them demand dowry was probably the losses they had incurred in  business.” Besides the hospital, the family owns a Mall and is also said to be in the real estate business.

Sharma said the accused brother-in-law of victim, while torturing the victim used to tell her that she is not good for their family and Sikhs (to which victim belongs) and Muslims are terrorists. He lashed out at the reports that say that  the whole incident was cooked up for the sake of property and blackmailing,  and that seers and industrialists are trying to broker peace between the victim and accused family.

The advocate of the victim narrated the sequence of events as follows:  November 11: assault and rape attempt on the victim by brother in-law;  November 12: The accused goes absconding; December 12: the victim gives birth to a child at the hospital owned by the family; January: the victim shifts to Bengaluru; February 12: Brother of the Victim’s husband files complaint against his brother alleging murder attempt; April 14: The victim files complaint against her brother in-law for sexual assault, father in-law and mother in-law on dowry harassment at Indiranagar police station, Bengaluru; complaint transferred to Mysuru the next day;  April 18: City Police takes information from the victim at Bengaluru;  

The advocate said that the victim had no choice but to get admitted to the hospital owned by her in-laws for delivery as all pregnancy check-ups were done there. Also, victim’s daughter being one of the director’s of the hospital at that time might have made her feel safe.  They say “the victim took time to lodge a complaint as her in-laws prevented her from doing so saying that the honour of the family will be at stake. It was only after she felt safe that she decided to go to the police”.  He sought to know why there was three and half months delay in submitting medical certificate of the accused pertaining to a attempt to murder case lodged by him against his brother and victim’s husband. The case was lodged to pre-empt the complaint against him by the victim.

Police does Mahajar in the presence of victim and her parents

Meanwhile, the police conducted mahajar of the house in V V Mohalla where the alleged crime took place on April 21st. The victim was present in the house during the mahajar, a senior police official said.  It is learnt that police have issued a notice to the accused to present himself before the police for questioning and have not yet considered him as absconding.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Mahila Dourjanya Virodhi Okkuta has requested the police to provide protection to the victim and institute an impartial enquiry into the entire matter, so as to provide justice to the victim.