A woman was killed over dowry by her husband in Chengara village of Gangni upazila in Meherpur, claims the victim's family and locals.
Police on Sunday recovered the hanging body of Nasima Khatun from her house, where she lived with her husband.
Gangni police station Officer-in-Charge Md Obaidur Rahman said the body has been sent for autopsy to determine the cause of death. "Nasima's husband Shakil is currently on the run. Police are trying to detain him."
According to the victim's family, Shakil strangulated Nasima and hung her body from a beam in their house to make it look like a suicide.
Nasima's elder sister Nasrin Jahan said Shakil and Nasima were in a relationship before their marriage. After the marriage, Shakil had been physically and mentally abusing Nasima as her family failed to give him a rickshaw van and money in cash as dowry.
Recently a local arbitration fined Shakil Tk30,000 for an extra-marital affair, which he had to pay by taking loans from various places, Nasrin continued.
Nasrin alleged: "Financial hardship aggravated as Shakil did not work much. Due to this the couple often had arguments. Nasima barely had three meals a day and was living a miserable life. It worsened because of her husband's abuse for dowry."
Locals said Nasima's father left her mother years ago, when she was a child. Due to being poor, Nasima's mother Bilkis Khatun raised all three children by tirelessly working in houses as a domestic help.
As the family didn't have a home or land of their own, they lived in houses of other people. Bilkis still sustains herself by working as a cleaner in Chengara Bazar of the upazila. The family has been hit hard because of the loss of their daughter, added locals.
