India: Husbands presumed guilty under law when wife dies

Article here. Excerpt:

'In December last year, 27-year-old Venkatajagadish Kintali, a city-based software engineer, spent a month in jail after his wife committed suicide and his in-laws cried "dowry harassment". The devastated Kintali came out on bail and decided to find out what led his wife of mere 10-months to take the drastic step. At the root of it, he soon found out, was a relationship he was kept in the dark about - not only by his wife but by his in-laws too.

When Kintali and Jyothsna Vysyaraju had an arranged marriage last year, the young man had no reason to doubt his wife's affections. About 10 months later on December 4, Jyothsna committed suicide at their Mahadevapura house allegedly due over a "heart ailment". The shocked Kintali soon had a dowry harassment case slapped against him too by the in-laws.

He languished in jail from December 7 to January 7, and when he got out on bail, Kintali decided to do his own digging. What he discovered were shocking chat messages, photographs, and videos that clearly pointed to an illicit relationship his wife was having with a senior from college, Girish Patnaik Rajamohanthy.'

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Dowry prohibition laws and British Indians: Some reflections