On the night of December 9, a 34-year-old Indian killed himself. Next to his body was a placard saying “Justice is due”.
Atul Subhash left a detailed 24-page suicide note and an 81-minute video in which he blamed the problem on his marriage and divorce issues.
The letter and the video, which contain disturbing details about his life, have gone viral on social media and caused an uproar.
The software engineer in the city of Bengaluru accused his wife, Nikita Singhania, who had denied it, her mother and brother of constant harassment and torture – allegations they denied. The three were arrested a few days later and have been held in court for 14 days.
The news of Subhash's tragic death has also inspired men's rights activists and sparked a wider debate about India's strict dowry law.
Many argue that, with cases of divorce rising regularly, women are misusing the law to oppress their husbands, even forcing them to kill themselves. India's top court has also weighed in, with one judge calling it “legal terrorism” that was “intended to be used as a shield and not as an assassin's weapon”.
Women's activists, however, say that dowry still kills thousands of women every year.
Subhash and Singhania (second from right) got married in 2019, but had been separated for three years (Bengaluru police)
Subhash and Singhania got married in 2019, but they had been living separately for three years and Subhash said he was not allowed to meet their four-year-old son. His wife, he said, had filed “false court cases”, accusing him of cruelty, dowry harassment and various other offences.
In the video, he accused the Singhania family of “extortion” and said they had demanded 30m rupees ($352,675; £279,661) to withdraw the cases, 3m rupees for their son's visiting rights and he asked to increase the monthly maintenance from 40,000 rupees to 200,000 rupees.
He then talked about the dozens of long trips he made over the past few years to attend court hearings and accused a judge of harassing him, seeking bribes from him and mocking him. A statement that appears to have been issued by the judge describes the allegations as “baseless, immoral and defamatory”.
News of the suicide sparked a storm of protests in several cities. Many took to social media to demand justice for Subhash.
They said his suicide should be treated as a case of murder and targeted Singhania, demanding that she be arrested and jailed for life.
On X (formerly Twitter), thousands tagged the American multinational company where she worked, demanding that they fire her.
After the commotion, the Bengaluru police opened an investigation against those named in the suicide note. On December 14, Singhania, her mother and brother were arrested on charges of “abetment of suicide”.
During interrogation, Singhania denied the allegations that she had been harassing Subhash for money, Times of India police said.
In the past, Singhania had also made serious allegations against her husband. In her 2022 petition for divorcethat she accused him, his parents and his brother of harassing her for dowry. She said that they had been unhappy with the gifts her parents gave during the wedding and she asked for 1m rupees more.
Men's rights activists have held protests in many cities demanding justice for Atul Subhash (BBC)
Dowry has been banned in India since 1961, but the bride's family is still expected to give the groom's family money, clothes and jewellery. According to a recent study, 90% of Indian marriages involve them and payments between 1950 and 1999 amounted to a quarter of a trillion dollars.
And according to the National Crime Records Bureau, 35,493 brides were killed in India between 2017 and 2022 – an average of 20 women per day – over dowry. In 2022 alone, more than 6,450 brides were murdered over dowry – that's an average of 18 women every day.
Singhania said her father died of a heart attack soon after her marriage when Subhash's parents went to him to ask for the money. She also said that her husband used to threaten her and “beat me after drinking alcohol and treat the relationship between husband and wife like a beast” by asking for illicit sex. natural.Subhash had denied all the allegations.
Police say they are still investigating the charges and allegations but Subhash's murder has led to more calls to rewrite – even scrap – India's strict anti-dowry law – Section 498A of Penal Code of India.
The law was introduced in 1983 after a series of dowry deaths in Delhi and elsewhere in the country. There were daily reports of brides being burned to death by their husbands and in-laws and the murders were often attributed to “kitchen accidents”. Angry protests by female MPs and activists forced parliament to introduce the law.
As lawyer Sukriti Chauhan says, “the law had come after a long and hard fight” and “allowed women to seek justice in cases of cruelty in their marital homes”.
Nikita Singhania had accused Subhash (pictured here with his mother) of his parents and brother of dowry harassment – they had denied the allegations (BBC)
But over the years, the law has repeatedly made headlines, with men's activists saying women are misusing it to harass their husbands and relatives.
India's top court has also warned against misuse of the law on several occasions. On the day Subhash's suicide was reported, the Supreme Court again pointed out – in an unrelated case – “the increasing misuse of the provision as a tool for vendetta to spread personal against the man and his family”.
Amit Deshpande, founder of the Mumbai-based men's rights group Vaastav Foundation, says the law is being used “mostly to attract men” and “there are thousands more who are suffering like Subhash”.
Their helpline number, he says, gets around 86,000 calls every year and most of the cases are about matrimonial disputes which include dowry cases and extortion attempts. .
“A cottage industry has been built around the law. In each case, 18-20 people are named as accused and all have to hire lawyers and go to court to seek bail. Cases have to be there where a baby is two months old or a serious minor has been named in dowry harassment complaints.
“I know these are extreme examples but the whole system enables this in some way. The police, judges and politicians turn a blind eye to our concerns,” he said. .
Men's rights activists say the dory law is being used “mostly to attract men” (Getty Images)
Mr Deshpande says that according to government crime data for more than 50 years, the majority of male suicides were by married men – and family discord was the cause of one in four suicides among them. .
Patriarchy, he says, also works against people. “Women have laws and they get sympathy, but people laugh at men who are harassed or beaten by their wives. If Subhash had been a woman he might have been involved in certain laws. So, let's make gender neutral laws and expand the same. justice to men so that life may be spared.”
There should also be strict punishment for those who misuse the law, otherwise this will not be a deterrent, he said.
Ms Chauhan agrees that women who misuse the law should be punished, but she argues that any law can be misused. The Bengaluru case is in court and if it is proved to be a false case, she should be punished, she says.
“But I don't support becoming gender neutral. The demand for that is backwards because it ignores the need for specific measures that acknowledge that women are disproportionately affected by violence.”
Those who are going after Section 498A, she says, are “driven by patriarchy and because it is a law for women, they are trying to knock it down”.
“It came after years of social patriarchal injustice. And this patriarchy is still a reality for our generation and will continue for generations to come.”
Despite the law, she says, demand for dowry is rampant and thousands of brides are still being killed for it.
The need of the hour, she said, is to “make the law stronger”.
“If three out of 10 cases that are filed are wrong, it is up to the courts to punish them. But women still suffer a lot in this country so don't ask the law to bring back.”
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