Kalpana’s decomposed body with assault marks on her hands and legs, broken teeth and a rope tied to her feet was found in a well belonging to her in-laws on Saturday.
Shock and disbelief is writ large on the faces of the family and relatives of Kalpana Pokharkar, 21, a four-month pregnant woman who was allegedly done to death by her in-laws in Pimpalgaon Khadki village near Ambegaon, 65 km northwest of Pune, last week.
Kalpana’s decomposed body with assault marks on her hands and legs, broken teeth and a rope tied to her feet was found in a well belonging to her in-laws on Saturday.
The standard X dropout had married Nitin Pokharkar, a driver, in a mass marriage ceremony in Ambegaon on May 15. Her dowry woes began immediately after marriage with the husband and in-laws demanding Rs2 lakh for an apartment. This despite the fact that her father Bhagwan Rodhe, 55, had given her in-laws four tolas of gold. According to the police, Kalpana was abused, assaulted and even kept hungry.
The victim’s problems compounded when she conceived just a few days after her marriage. According to the police, this prompted her husband to suspect her character and harass her further.
When DNA visited Manchar town near Ambegaon on Tuesday where Kalpana’s family and relatives had congregated to grieve her loss, they were visibly distraught and upset. The victim’s mother Laxmibai and sister Manda have been admitted to the Manchar rural hospital as they were suffering from severe trauma.
According to Kalpana’s Mumbai-based maternal uncle, Shankar Date, 35, he had personally tried to make Kalpana’s husband understand but to no avail. “Nitin simply denied that he was the father of the child to be born. On three occasions, he tried to forcibly make Kalpana perform a sonography test, which she had refused. On July 14, I invited the couple to my home in Mumbai. Nitin even gave a written note stating that he would not harass Kalpana in the future. Alas that did not happen,” he said.
The victim’s father Rodhe, a farmer from Bhursewadi in Rajgurunagar taluka, 50km from Pune, is heartbroken at the death of his youngest daughter. He blames himself for forcing Kalpana into marriage.
“Kalpana used to earn Rs4,000 per month by working in a workshop. I should have educated her further instead of marrying her off,” he said.
Rodhe said that Nitin was his son’s school friend and hence they had accepted the marriage proposal.
“My daughter cannot commit suicide. I last saw my daughter on September 27 at a ceremony. I received a telephone call two days later stating that she was missing from the farm. When I went to my in-laws’ farm, they had already locked their home and fled,” he said.
Rodhe lodged a complaint with the Manchar police station against Kalpana’s husband Nitin, his father Suryakant, mother Ratanbai, his younger brother Vaibhav and relative Jaisinh Vayal. The quintet has been arrested by the police and produced before the court and remanded in police custody till Wednesday.
Senior inspector Yashwant Gaware of Manchar police station told DNA that they fished Kalpana’s body from the well on October 1 after sighting a ladies chappal inside the well. Gaware said that the post-mortem report was awaited to ascertain whether it was a case of murder or suicide.
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