"Keeps Saying They Burnt My Mother": Dowry Victim's Father On Grandson

His mother was burnt alive, allegedly by his father and grandmother. The seven-year-old boy claims he saw it all. The sight haunts him now, the boy's maternal grandfather told NDTV.

The woman, Nikki Bhati, was killed over a dowry demand of Rs 36 lakh, nine years after she married Vipin Bhati, a resident of Greater Noida, neighbouring national capital Delhi. She was 28.

The victim's son is now with her parents.

"I will bring him up as well as I can. He cries every evening thinking of his mother. He keeps saying, 'They burnt my mother,'" victim's father, Bhikari Singh Payla, told NDTV.

"We try to comfort him," the victim's father added, fighting back tears.

The victim's elder sister, Kanchan, who was married in the same family, claimed Nikki was burnt alive in front of her eyes as she failed to get them Rs 36 lakh in dowry. She claimed that her in-laws assaulted her as well for dowry.

Nikki's family has said that Vipin and Rohit - husbands of Nikki and Kanchan, respectively - were unemployed and lived off their father's grocery shop.

Nikki and Kanchan opened a salon and boutique business to become financially independent, the brothers started stealing from their earnings, claims Nikki's family.

On Thursday evening, an argument broke out between Nikki and Vipin. He assaulted her and allegedly set her on fire with help from his mother, Daya.

Vipin, his brother, Rohit, and parents, Daya and Satyavir, have been arrested.

"My elder daughter (Kanchan) called and told me, 'Papa, Nikki ko jala diya (They burnt Nikki). We reached the hospital, and the doctor told us she had suffered 70 per cent burns...  I have lost everything. I lost my daughter, what is left now?" the victim's father said.