CCTV footage of a retired judge, who served at the Hyderabad and Madras High Courts, his wife and son physically abusing a woman in front of her two-year-old child has surfaced.
The woman seen in the video, 30-year-old Sindhu Sharma, had complained about the alleged dowry harassment back in April against her father-in-law, Ram Mohan Rao, his wife Durga Jayalaxmi and son Vasista.
Sindhu said that she released this CCTV footage now to bring attention to the matter. She demanded that the complaint be treated with absolute urgency and the accused be put to trial.
She had also approached the Central Crime Station in Hyderabad in April and alleged that her husband and in-laws had been harassing her for dowry for years and had even physically assaulted her.
The couple got married in 2012 and have two daughters.
On 20 April, the family allegedly thrashed Sindhu to such an extent that she had to be rushed to a hospital. Medical reports had revealed that there were nail marks on her chest and abrasions all over her body.
After Sindhu got discharged, she went to her parents’ house. She and her family had even staged a protest demanding justice in front of the judges’ house at Jubilee Hills.
A case had been registered under IPC sections 498A (Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 406 (Criminal breach of trust) and 323 (Voluntarily causing hurt) and Section 6 of the Dowry Prevention Act against all the three. However, no arrests were made.
Sindhu, in an interview with CNN-News 18, had said that she was not able to find an advocate to argue her case because of how influential her father-in-law is.
(With inputs from CNN-News18)
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