Housewife murdered for dowry in Silchar

A housewife of Kanakpur area in Silchar was allegedly murdered for dowry by her husband and his family members late on Wednesday night.

The housewife Jasmina Begum originally belonged from Tripura.

According to sources, Jasmina got married to Jakir Hussain Sheikh, son of Ibrahim Ali Sheikh and a resident of Kanakpur in Silchar on October 1, 2015. Jasmina was the daughter of Moinul Haque, a resident of Khadimpara in North Tripura district of Tripura.

Family members of Jasmina said Jasmina’s married life went well for the first year. However, the behaviour of her husband Jakir and his family members changed soon and they started pressurising her for dowry, they alleged.

After a few months, Jasmina gave birth to a son. However, Jakir and his family members’ behaviour remained unchanged and they used to beat up Jasmina daily. Though Jasmina told them many times that their family was very poor and will not be able to afford any dowry, Jakir and his family never listened to her and continued the torture.

Meanwhile, Jasmina came to know that Jakir had earlier married another woman, who was thrown out of the house as she could not fulfilled his demands of dowry. After Jakir came to know that Jasmina was aware about his past, he started torturing her more and more, the family members alleged.

A few months ago, Jasmina took an amount of Rs. 14,000 from her parents and gave it to Jakir, but his greed kept growing more. Consequently, the tortures were continued, they alleged.

On Wednesday night, Jakir engaged into a quarrel with Jasmina and beat her up. He hit her on her head with a wooden stick as a result of which she collapsed on the ground and fell unconscious. When Jakir and his family members realised that she was dead, they poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze to make the incident look like a suicide, the family members claimed.

When Jasmina, who had suffered burn injuries, was taken to a hospital, she was declared brought dead. The post-mortem was then done, following which the body was handed over to her family members.

A first information report was lodged at Silchar Sadar Police Station against Jasmina’s husband Jakir, father-in-law Ibrahim Ali Sheikh and mother-in-law Alakjan Bibi in connection with the incident. A probe was initiated and Jakir was arrested on Thursday. The other accused were not arrested, as per last available reports.