Their Last Wish Was to Go Home

New Delhi: “Please take me home” Trapped in abusive marriages and allegedly taunted for not bringing in enough dowry, that was perhaps the sentiment if not the words that echoed hollow in the last days of three young women found dead in their marital homes this month.

Because Twisha Sharma in Bhopal, Deepika Nagar in Noida and Palak Ranjan in Gwalior never could go back to the safety of their parental homes. Their deaths clouded in allegations of dowry demands, their parents grieving and in despair.

In all three cases, the families alleged that the in-laws demanded dowry through money and gifts and harassed their daughters mentally and physically. Reframed in discourse as gifts and lavish parties, dowry is still not stigmatised but divorce is.

Every day, an average 16 women somewhere in India die because of dowry. According to the latest data by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there were 5,737 dowry deaths in 2024, down from 6,156 the year before but still amounting to 478 a month.

Besides, there are 59,446 cases under Section 80 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, earlier Section 304B of Indian Penal Code, pending for trial in different courts across the country with a conviction rate of just about 46 per cent.

Twisha, Deepika and Palak were a small part of this statistical jigsaw, but important cases in point. The legal framework exists but burdened by massive delays that stymie efforts to build in confidence in women and change societal norms.

Their deaths raise questions, both moral and legal: Why couldn't their families take them home? Why didn't they seek help? Isn't the law in their favour? Will they ever find justice? The questions haunt.

The answers, according to experts, reveal a social structure that restricts a woman's autonomy through psychological conditioning, expectations of propriety and social shame, and a legal ecosystem that despite being strong is burdened by an ever-increasing pile of pending dowry death cases and low conviction rates.

“It's not that at present I'm not able to walk out, I do. I have money and I have everything. It's more about 'do I have the option of walking out?' 'Will people accept me?' So even though you feel financially independent. But in the mind, do you feel free?” asked forensic psychologist Dr Deepti Puranik, ”Then there are factors like family and children. So is the person actually free to take the decision of walking out... that in itself becomes a very important question to be asked,” added Puranik, associate professor at the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai.

As she sees it, women are brought up with certain beliefs when it comes to marriages that make them mentally unable to walk out of toxic marriages. Caught in the same trap of societal stigma, the parents mostly don't help much either.

The despair set in early in their marriages for all three women, each reaching out to her family in the hours and days leading to death.

On May 12, Twisha was found hanging in her marital after five months of a troubled marriage. Palak ended her life, the same day, the same way, in Gwalior after barely a year of marriage. Five days later and hundreds of kilometres away, Deepika allegedly jumped from her in-laws' Greater Noida home on May 17, soon after her parents came to mediate with them upon receiving her frantic calls.

Their stories run the same track.

According to reports, Twisha, an MBA graduate and model, had remained in touch with her family till hours before her death, pleading with them to take her home. In alleged chats leaked online, the 33-year-old would inform her mother about her struggles.

In his complaint to police, Deepika's father Sanjeev Nagar alleged that he received a phone call from his daughter on the afternoon of May 17 during which she was crying and told him that her in-laws were assaulting her over dowry demands. The 24-year-old died later that day.

According to media reports, Rajak, a 21-year-old Instagram content creator with over 10,000 followers, allegedly called her brother barely 30 minutes before her death. In the weeks leading up to the fateful day, she had been posting reels hinting at mental stress and emotional breakdown.

Why do families act a little too late? ”From childhood, people tell their daughters that ultimately marriage is about prestige,” Puranik said.

Supreme Court lawyer Seema Kushwaha, who represented the victim's family in the 2012 Delhi Nirbhaya gangrape and murder, agreed. Parents, she said, expect their daughters “to adjust and save the marriage at any cost”.

“Such is the social structure we live in that divorce and remarriage are still not socially accepted in many sections of societyIndependence is encouraged conditionally, not as a woman's right, but as a social necessity,” Kushwaha said.

Bombay High Court advocate and activist Abha Singh added that dowry is largely accepted in society with no social shaming attached to lavish weddings and expensive gifts and low conviction rates do little to deter offenders.

"There's no social stigma, no social boycott for dowry. Dowry now comes in different forms. It is a five-star wedding, a destination wedding, chartered flights for guests and whatnot. It has been normalised because it has become a status symbol," Singh said.

Swift justice would help change things but that rarely happens.

Poor forensic reports, evidence collection, wrong section in chargesheet, withdrawal from the woman's family and long-drawn trials lead to low conviction rates, which further embolden offenders, said Kushwaha.

She also noted that Section 80 of BNS puts the burden of proving innocence on the accused if a woman dies within seven years of her marriage and a history of cruelty against the bride can be established.

"In some cases, there are children involved. So the girl's parents feel that if the father goes to jail, who will take care of the kids? And they withdraw the case. Second is the forensics and all is not done properly, evidence is not collected properly. If the chargesheet is not foolproof, the defense is always there to attack," Singh said.

In cases of dowry deaths where it appears difficult to frame charges, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi suggested that it is best to gather all evidence both from the in-laws' side and regarding the accusations made by the parents.

"Forensic evidence is extremely important, the autopsy is very important, and all the blood test reports are crucial. Suppose no clear conclusion emerges from either side, in such cases, we would present our assessment before the court and seek a judicial verdict. It's very, very important," Bedi said.