New Delhi: It was 9.55 pm Monday when 25-year-old Bina made a phone call in distress to her elder sister—the last conversation the two would have. “They are hitting me. Abusing me. If something happens to my child, please take care of him,” Bina said, crying before the call was disconnected. Subsequent phone calls to her went unanswered.
Seven minutes later, at 10.02 pm, Bina’s brother-in-law called her sister back. “Bina fell off the building,” he told her. Raj Kumar, Bina’s brother who works as an assistant for a Delhi-based lawyer, narrated the conversations, speaking to ThePrint.
He said that on being informed, he immediately rushed from Delhi’s Mehrauli where he lives to Dasghara village in Inderpuri, where Bina lived with her husband Raju Singh, 27, and his two brothers. “We panicked. We did not know what happened,” Raj Kumar added.
Soon after Bina’s family members reached there, they found out that she was no more. “The family she was married into had been physically and mentally harassing her for years,” Raj Kumar said.
Bina’s death, her family alleged in statements to the police, was a result of harassment over dowry.
An FIR has been registered under Sections 80 (dowry death) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Inderpuri police station against Bina’s husband and his two brothers, on the complaint of her family—hailing from Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh—preliminary police inquiry and postmortem exam conducted Wednesday.
Raju and one of his brothers have also been arrested.
The FIR filed by Bina’s father Suresh, seen by ThePrint, states: “I had given a lot of dowry in the marriage. Raju was already working in Delhi before marriage. After six months of marriage, my daughter came to Delhi with her husband and started living in Dasghara.”
“Days after coming to Delhi, my daughter would complain about my son-in-law, but we would pacify her… my son-in-law’s two younger brothers also lived with him in Delhi and started beating my daughter. They both used to abuse and beat my daughter. Just six months ago, my daughter had a son, and even then, my son-in-law and his brothers used to pressure and beat her for dowry,” the father adds.
“Last night, my daughter Bina called her elder sister Reena and said, ‘take me away from here, otherwise these people will kill me’. After that, we called her (back), and no matter how many calls we made, no one answered. Then, around 10 o’clock at night, my son-in-law’s brother called my elder daughter and told her that her sister had fallen from the roof,” he adds in the FIR.
According to the police, Raju works as a private helper at a company in Karol Bagh, and his younger brother, Rajkumar, 22, works as a private helper for a travel company in Karol Bagh.
Speaking to the media, DCP (West) Sharad Bhaskar Darade said that, on Monday night, a PCR call was received about a woman falling off a building at Holi Chowk, Dasghara village, upon which, local police immediately reached the spot and shifted the injured woman to hospital, where she was declared “brought dead” by doctors.
The SDM, Karol Bagh, recorded the statements of the family members, said the DCP, adding that crime sleuths and FSL teams inspected the spot and evidence was collected.
ThePrint reached Raju’s family, with one of his cousins, not willing to be named, saying “injustice has been done to us but let the law take its course”.
“My brother Raju was in the kitchen when the incident happened. My second brother wasn’t at home, and my third brother was on a phone call. We don’t know what is being presented to the police… we don’t know what conversation Bina had with her family… but injustice has been done to us,” he said. He added that two members of his family had been arrested, and they had been making the rounds of the police station since Wednesday night.
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‘Gave everything we had, wasn’t enough’
Bina is survived by her six-month-old son, her parents, four sisters and a brother. Raj Kumar said their maternal home is in Sambhal and their father is a farmer.
Ahead of Bina and Raju’s marriage in 2022, Raju’s family had expressed multiple demands, he told ThePrint. “They had too many demands. Wanted a Rs 2.5 lakh bike, they wanted an extravagant party, expensive catering, AC, fridge, TV, gold chain and ring. My father managed to accept many of the demands, but within our budget,” he said.
According to Raj Kumar, Bina’s family gave Raju a bike, but it was not that expensive as they couldn’t afford it. They also managed to give the couple a 32-inch TV, and a gold ring.
“My father took small loans to pay for it. When we gave them the gifts, they were not disappointed. So, we assumed, it was okay,” her brother said.
But, as it turned out, he added, that wasn’t the real picture.
Six months into the marriage, Bina said she was being beaten up by her husband and his brothers over “not fulfilling their demands”.
“The first time, in mid-2023, my sister informed me that they were assaulting her. A panchayat was dedicated to hear this matter, and we brought our sister back home. Even her father-in-law told us he wouldn’t want to keep her (with her husband). We told them we will file a complaint, and under the pressure, he agreed.”
Then in February 2024, Raju hit her so badly that her ear drum was punctured, her brother said. The family again brought Bina back to Sambhal for treatment.
‘Last six months were torture’
Raj Kumar told ThePrint that the last six months had been torture for Bina as she had just given birth and it was difficult for her to do basic activities. “They forced her to cook food for everyone, wash clothes, clean the entire house. When she couldn’t, they would hit her.”
Raju’s younger brother had also got married recently and they had managed to secure dowry according to their demands, Raj Kumar said.
Taunts thus became normal in the house. Bina was taunted about every single thing that Raju’s brother’s wife had managed to get, he said. “Even a 40-inch TV became a bone of contention. That is what killed my sister.”
Bina managed to fight back in the last six months, he told ThePrint. She told her in-laws that her family could do only so much and that her body would take time to recover from childbirth. According to Bina’s family, she was a calm person and tried to manage the situation at home, not always sharing things with them, fearing their concerns.
“Had she told us how frequent this (harassment) was, maybe we would have got her back. And she could have been saved,” said her brother.
Bina had completed studies till Class 12 and was working at a private company in Green Park earlier. Her brother said that after she got married, she was not allowed to work.
“My sister really wanted to work. She wanted to be independent, earn her own money, so she could pay them (in-laws) back,” he told ThePrint.
Grim dowry death data
Bina’s death comes on the heels of 33-year-old Twisha Sharma’s.
She was found dead at her marital home in Bhopal on 12 May, with her family alleging mental torture and dowry harassment by her in-laws. The same day, the death of newlywed Palak Rajak, 21, was reported at her in-laws’ home in Gwalior. Her family accused the in-laws of harassment over dowry and alleged that she was killed.
Then on 17 May, 25-year-old Deepika Nagar allegedly died by falling off the roof of her in-laws’ home in Greater Noida. He family told the police that she was being mentally and physically harassed for dowry. Police investigation is ongoing in all cases.
According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, India recorded 6,450 dowry death cases in 2022. In 2023, 6,156 cases were recorded and in 2024, the number dipped slightly to 5,737 cases. Cases of cruelty by husband or his relatives were recorded at 1,20,227 in 2024.
In 2024, the highest number of dowry death cases were recorded in Uttar Pradesh at 2,038 cases, followed by Bihar with 1,078 cases, and Madhya Pradesh with 450 cases. The national capital recorded 109 cases.
India overall recorded 13,479 cases under the Dowry Prohibition Act in 2022, followed by 15,489 cases in 2023, and 12,343 cases in 2024.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)