A Kishoreganj housewife was burnt to death on Friday, allegedly by her husband and sister-in-law who had demanded dowry money from her.
The incident occurred in the Purba Katiarchar area under Sadar upazila of the district.
The deceased, Toma Adittay, 21, was a second year honors’ student at Kishoreganj Gurudayal Government College, and the mother of a one year old child.
Police arrested three suspects, including the husband of the dead. The arrestees were Toma’s husband Jhutan Chandra Bishwas, her mother-in-law Kolpona Ranee Bishwas and sister-in-law Sita Ranee Bishwas.
Locals said on Friday morning an argument began over dowry, and at one stage of the argument Toma’s husband and her in-laws set Toma on fire around 10am after dousing her body with kerosene.
After hearing her cries for help, locals rescued Toma and rushed her to Kishoreganj Adhunik Sadar Hospital. She was then shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s burns unit as her condition deteriorated. She succumbed to her injuries around 5pm.
Toma’s father Tapan Kumar Adittay said his son-in-law demanded a huge amount of money as dowry before marriage, and he had been paying the dowry money to the son-in-law by installments since his daughter’s marriage.
He added that in recent times his son-in-law had been demanding Tk100,000 more as dowry money, but he refused to pay the money.
Later, “they started torturing Toma as we refused to give them the money,” added Tapan Kumar.
He filed a murder case with Kishoreganj sadar police station under the Women and Children Repression Act, accusing five individuals, including the husband.
However, the victim’s husband and his relatives denied the allegations.
