Dowry is a social evil. We all have been listening about the adverse effect of dowry and how it pull back our society to dark-ages. Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 is the Constitutional framework to eradicate this social virus. It was expected that with the increase in literacy and arrival of education would completely annihilate this issue. All assumptions and expectations collapsed after this incident.

Rahul Kumar, a resident of village Kadirganj (District Nawada), lost his 2 sisters to the demon of dowry. In an open letter, he narrated the background, the scenario and the incident. He fears that the influence of Ravi Kumar would change the postmortem report as well as destroy all the evidences against him.

His Letter

Sir,

I am Rahul Kumar, S/O- Raghunath Prasad, Resident of Vill. + PS- Kadirganj, Dist. Nawada wanted to inform you that I have lost my 2 sisters, named: Priyanka Kumari (25 years) married to Mr. Ravi Kumar a.k.a, Sanjeev Kumar  and Rani Kumari (17 years), unmarried on date 1 May 2018 near Vill. – Bihta, Post – Alipur, P.S- Salimpur, Dist. – Patna.

Narrating the detail of the incident, on May 1 2018, a phone call appeared to be from Mr. Kaushal Kishore, a neghbour of Mr. Ravi Kumar on my small brother Mr. Rohit Kumar’s cell phone. On this call, Mr. Kaushal Kishore around 11.50 AM narrated that my both sisters drowned at River Ganga near Lakhipur, Salimpur. Immediately after hearing this unexpected incidence on the call, we were trying to call Mr. Ravi Kumar, the husband of my elder sister but despite of constant trial to have the conversation, his number was not going through and thus in this panic situation, we were unable to contact him. Afterwards, we called Mr. Vibhuti Kumar, the nephew of Mr. Ravi Kumar and he gave us the information about the drowning of my both sisters in River Ganga and informed me that NDRF team is about to come at location for search. Then upon repetitive calling to Mr. Vibhuti Kumar, at around 1 pm he informed us that NDRF team has already arrived on the location for search.

My family members and my relatives arrived at the location which was conveyed to us as the drowning point around 5 pm and we found that there was no NDRF team present which was found to be against the statement provided by Mr. Vibhuti Kumar that day in afternoon on the call. Meanwhile that day I was in my college, ISM Dhanbad and my friends during noon time, called NDRF by getting their contact info. from Internet and thus got the contact details of SDRF and informed about the incidence and requested them to be on the location for help and rescue. Afterwards, my friends at ISM Dhanbad fetched the contact details of SDO, Barh and provided the information of the incidence and requested local bodies to arrive at the location for help and rescue. Later we found that SDRF team were on the location around 6.45 PM on May 1, 2018.

While during the day of incidence, my family were completely put in dilemma and constantly false information were being provided and we were unable to get in contact with Mr. Ravi Kumar till my family arrived at the location. The SDRF team performed the search operation for about 2 hours that day but failed to found the body.

I also want to give you the background of the things that were happening with my elder sister from her in-laws and husband. My elder sister, Priyanka was married on 10th June, 2014 with Hindu customs and rituals to Mr. Ravi Kumar and on the name of expenses and gift, my father paid Rs. 4,00,000/- to the father of Mr. Ravi Kumar. Soon after the marriage, we constantly heard about the conflicts and home abuse for my sister from Mr. Ravi Kumar and his family. The family of Mr. Ravi Kumar and his family constantly demanded the large amounts of money from my father and mother, from time to time and always threatened my sister and tortured my sister mentally. Even when my sister was pregnant, Mr. Ravi Kumar and his family demanded the money from my parents and tortured my sister during her pregnancy too. There were times when my sister was at my home, and Mr. Ravi Kumar used to call her and asked her to get the money from my parents. When my mother got to know this matter when my sister used to cry, my parents were forced to pay a large amount of money. Despite this, it was their  constant act of cruelty and habit to torture my sister and demand more money on a periodical basis. When my parents denied about the money several times, they warned my sister for severe consequences.

When this incidence took place, we are suspecting it to be a murder because of the nature of this incidence and story followed thereafter. On 3rd May 2018 we were informed about the body that it was found around 10 AM by SDRF team. (The photographs immediately captured is attached with this letter and prima facie, it is evident that it seems not to be a death by drowning but by killing and then the body was thrown in the River Ganga or forcefully they were drowned).

The bodies of my sisters were sent to Postmortem post-noon of 3rd May 2018 at Post Ofice Ghat in Barh under the supervision of Dr. Vikash. After the performance of postmortem, the bodies were handed over to my family for death rituals.

Based on the past incidences and aftermath of the current incident, we are sure and confident that the postmortem reports can be forged under the local political and power influence by Mr. Ravi Kumar and his family and the real reason of death cannot appear on surface and we couldn’t get justice that we deserve. Indeed, due to the nature of the influence that Mr. Ravi Kumar and his family owns on local administration due to their political lobby and nature of the business they are in (they own 2-3 ITI colleges), we are sure that they can tampered the reports and influence the investigation to a lot extent. Aftermath of this incident, we filed an FIR at PS – Salimpur, Dist. – Patna on 13th May 2018 for further investigation of this incident. On 14th May 2018, there was a conversation on mobile phone between Mr. Ravi Kumar and my younger brother, Mr. Rohit Kumar. During the conversation (the recorded audio clip is attached with this letter), Mr. Ravi Kumar threatened about our future and told that “I have seen multiple cases like this from 1995… and I am not going to leave anyone based upon my power and money…”.

Based on all these incidences, we are highly confident that Mr. Ravi Kumar and his family can put a force on the Doctor who performed postmortem under the political and local influence.

I am writing this letter to have a sincere request to you to please look into this matter and set up a investigation in the right spirit to find out the real truth and help my family get the justice. The intent of the request is to enable a right investigation under supervision of right team, which doesn’t get influenced by the local politics and administration and which works independently. We also want an independent medical team to get set up to further examine the postmortem analysis.

I know I am not going to get my sisters back and my parents are also aware of the loss. But I have full faith and confidence in the Jurisdiction, the Government, the Police and the Investigations agency and amid this light of confidence and trust, I hope that the justice will take place in the right spirit of truth.

Thanking you and Regards,

Rahul Kumar, 

Son of Raghunath Prasad, 

Vill. + Post – Kadirganj, 

Dist. – Nawada, Bihar 

Pin – 805104 

Rahul Kumar has contacted all the stalwarts of Hindi media and their reaction is pending. May he get the justice and the culprit the death sentence.