Letter of dowry victim leads to conviction of four accused

Hyderabad: In among her last acts of desperation, a woman wrote a note to her brother detailing the torture by her husband and his family, and hid in her undergarments, She then drowned her two daughters and committed suicide in 2014.

That note helped the police secure the conviction of victim’s husband , Mohd. Nawaz, a flower vendor, his parents and his partner Rasia, whom a court sentenced to life imprisonment on November 16.

Police said Shanoor had drowned her two daughters, Afsheen and Zubia, and died by suicide in their house in Asifnagar. Her letter was crucial evidence in the case.

The forensic experts compared the handwriting in the letter and compared it to Shanoor's previous writing and concluded that she had written the note.

According to the police, Shanoor wrote some messages to her brother in the letter and concealed it in her undergarment as a precaution so it didn't end up in the hands of her husband and his family.

Shanoor texted her brother a few hours before taking the drastic step, informing him that her husband Nawaz and his partner Rasia were planning to murder her and that if she died suddenly, they should be held responsible.

Postmortem examination revealed 'antemortem' injuries on the victim and one of the two daughters' bodies. As a result, the accused were held liable for punishment under murder rather than death due to dowry harassment, the court noted.

The police initially had filed a dowry death case. However, after reviewing the postmortem evidence, the court changed the case from dowry death to murder.