'Poison', Dowry Claims As Mumbai Woman Dies Month Before 1st Wedding Anniversary

Neha Gupta, a 24-year-old woman from Mumbai's West Khar was rushed to a local hospital on the night of October 16. She was then bounced to a second and, hours later, discharged and sent home. Hours after that, she collapsed. Rushed back to the second hospital, she died.

And now the police have arrested her husband, Arvind Gupta, and five members of his family, on murder and dowry harassment charges, pending final forensic and post-mortem reports.

The couple wed last year. Their first anniversary, in fact, was less than a month away, but all was not apparently well in the Gupta household. Before her death Neha Gupta told her parents she was being poisoned, and had been harassed by her husband and his family over dowry.

Her father, Radheshyam Gupta, told police the abuse began shortly after her marriage to Arvind Gupta, who was born in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur and worked in Mumbai as a bank official.

The wedding was on November 16, 2024.

Radheshyam Gupta lavished gifts on his son-in-law, including gold worth an estimated Rs 28 lakh, Rs 9 lakh in cash, and a clutch of household appliances. The gifts weren't billed as dowry -for that is illegal - but had to be given as such nonetheless, for the crass tradition remains hardwired in many parts of the country; 'gifts' are expected and their absence is an 'insult'.

Yet Arvind Gupta's family wanted more, the father claimed. More money and an expensive Royal Enfield motorcycle. The young woman refused. The abuse, she told her father, escalated.

And Neha Gupta, her family has claimed, began to be poisoned. The police were told her food was laced with narcotics that caused her to faint, repeatedly, much like the bouts that caused her to be taken to hospital. She also told her father she felt 'strange' and 'mentally unstable'.

And that she had been forced to undergo an abortion.

The police have filed preliminary charges - dowry-related death, causing hurt by poison, and murder - against the six arrested people. Forensic reports will provide more details.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.