Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh police sub-inspector Shashank Mishra, who allegedly demanded Rs 25 lakh dowry to be handed “secretly”, has been suspended for allegedly firing at his pregnant wife with his service pistol.
The woman is currently stable and is undergoing treatment from the Jhansi Medical College.
Mishra allegedly shot at his wife thrice on the night of 8 October. He was last posted as in charge of the Bangra police chowki in Jhansi before being suspended Monday. His family members are also accused of subjecting the woman to cruelty, harassment, intimidation and attempt to murder.
The woman’s father lodged an FIR Monday against Mishra, his mother, younger brother, two sisters and as many brothers-in-law.
The FIR was registered under IPC sections 498-a (husband/relative subjecting woman to cruelty), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 120-b (criminal conspiracy), 354 (sexual harassment), 307 (attempt to murder) and sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. ThePrint has a copy of the FIR.
Jhansi Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rajesh S. had confirmed that the sub-inspector fired at his wife resulting in injuries on her right hand. “She is now out of danger. The accused sub-inspector has been taken into police custody and is suspended with immediate effect,” he told the media.
Speaking to ThePrint Thursday, Mishra’s father-in-law, who is himself a UP police sub-inspector, alleged that “his (Mishra) family did not like that we gave the dowry in front of relatives during a tilak ceremony”.
“We were suspicious of their intentions but thought that the groom was serving in UP Police and would keep our daughter happy. She is my only daughter,” he said.
ThePrint reached Mishra via calls, but they went unanswered.
On Thursday, pictures from Mishra’s tilak ceremony went viral on the social media platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter).
Shashank Mishra,
a UP police sub-inspector stationed in Jhansi,
is accused of shooting at his pregnant wife many times.
The wife said she has been harassed by her in-laws over the #dowry.
There has also been a photo of Shashank Mishra's #Tilak_ceremony from 2021. pic.twitter.com/nzEf3QotT4
— भूमिका_हिन्दू (@bhoomika_hindu) October 12, 2023
Dowry demand and harassment
The woman’s father told ThePrint that Mishra’s family started harassing his daughter soon after the wedding was solemnised in December 2021. He said that he spent Rs 40 lakh on the wedding, but the family was dissatisfied and demanded more money and gold jewellery from her.
He said that they knew the family through Mishra’s now-deceased father, who served as an assistant sub-inspector till his death in 2015. “My elder brother knew his father who was a gentleman. Both families had men serving in the UP Police. We didn’t know they would turn out to be so greedy and arrogant,” he said.
Talking about the dowry demand, the father claimed, “They (Mishras) insisted that the money be given to them in a suitcase at their home, but we instead gave them the cash in public during the tilak ceremony.”
“This did not go down well with them,” he alleged, adding that Mishra’s younger brother Shivank even misbehaved with their relatives during the wedding, leading to an argument between the two sides.
The father alleged in the FIR that, though he gave Rs 25 lakh in cash along with gold jewellery to Mishra in dowry along with furniture worth Rs 6 lakh, the family allegedly continued to mistreat his daughter.
She had to depend on her parents to meet her needs, as Mishra’s family would send her to her maternal home in Jhansi without any money, he alleged.
“Whenever she came to visit us, she would be bereft of money. She had to depend on us to take care of her needs,” he alleged, adding that Mishra allegedly slapped her on multiple occasions under the influence of alcohol.
‘Mishra asked her to keep quiet’
The father also alleged that his daughter was sexually harassed by her brother-in-law Shivank, which made her confront her husband.
“Mishra asked her to keep quiet and keep everyone happy. He was under pressure from his brother and mother because he had got the UP Police job on compassionate grounds after his father’s demise. Both would exert pressure on him. Shivang would say that since Mishra had got their father’s job, he also had the right over his earnings,” the woman’s brother told ThePrint.
After the incident, the woman’s family filed a complaint against the Mishra family on the IGRS portal — the UP government’s integrated grievance redressal system — in March.
According to her father, the woman spent several months at her parental home before a local police officer brokered a compromise between the two families.
“The complaint reached the Circle Officer (City) Rajesh Rai who probed the complaint and made both sides arrive at a compromise on April 8 this year. The CO assured us that our daughter won’t be troubled further and Mishra took her to her in-laws’ home on May 16, 2023,” the brother said.
Rai confirmed to ThePrint that he had probed the family’s application. “Both sides were made to discuss the issue and a compromise was brokered. If he doesn’t keep his wife, then who will? I don’t know what transpired later. He has been allotted a government accommodation, but he still kept his wife at a rented accommodation, while his family is staying in the allotted accommodation,” he said.
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Pregnancy brokered peace
On Rakshabandhan (30 August), the woman’s parents brought her home again. “This time, we did not send her back for 20 days. However, when we got to know that she was two months pregnant, Mishra was informed and he took her with him to a rented accommodation in Bangra, but he would visit his parents twice a week,” the father said.
On 8 October, when Mishra returned home late, the woman questioned him why he did not inform her that he would be late, which Mishra ignored.
“He was lying on the bed and had kept his service revolver at the table. My daughter patted him slightly on his back asking why he was not responding, which got him angry,” the father said.
The father added that she feared that he would hit her with his belt, as he had done before, but he instead grabbed his revolver and shot at her thrice.
“Two bullets pierced through her right hand and one grazed past her stomach,” he alleged, adding that she managed to alert her neighbours, who came to her rescue.
“Their landlords Parshuram and Madhu Yadav asked Mishra to take her to a hospital. He took my daughter to the Jhansi Medical College, but took her phone away. However, she remembered her uncle’s number and contacted him using someone else’s phone,” the father said.
Violation of dowry prohibition rules
According to a March 2004 amendment in the Dowry Prohibition Rules framed by the UP government in 1999, every state employee is required to furnish a self-attested affidavit to the appointing authority, stating that he did not receive dowry in marriage.
The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, also makes it mandatory for all public servants to furnish an affidavit at the time of joining, stating that they will not receive a dowry when they get married.
In 2021, the Department of Women’s Welfare reportedly issued a circular saying that all government servants in the state who got married after March 31, 2004, would have to submit an affidavit declaring that they did not receive a dowry at the time of their marriage.
Asked if Mishra ever filed such an affidavit, Jhansi SSP Rajesh S. said he would have to check if he filled this affidavit or not.
“A departmental inquiry has been initiated against him under Rule 14 (1) of the UP Officer of Subordinate Ranks, (Punishment and Appeal) Rules under which the ultimate punishment is dismissal or removal from service. In this case, he is most likely to be dismissed from service after the inquiry,” he said.
Meanwhile, talking about dowry, the woman’s family said giving money in dowry in marriage was a usual affair in Bundelkhand, especially when it comes to marriages of government servants.
“It is a sad trend in UP and Bihar,” the brother agreed, but said, “In Bundelkhand, giving dowry in cash or cheque during the tilak ceremony is usual.”
“Unfortunately, parents have this ingrained in their minds that their daughters won’t remain happy if they don’t give dowry,” he added.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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