Maharashtra: Girl ends life as parents didn't have money to marry her off

Mumbai: Bemoaning the continuance of social evil of dowry in her Maratha community, a young girl from a village in Maharashtra on Saturday committed suicide to "lessen" the burden of her poor father.

Sheetal Vyankat Vayal (21), resident of Bhise Wagholi in Latur district, jumped into a well early this morning and ended her life, police said.

"My parents are poor and they don't have money for my marriage. I am ending my life to lessen my father's burden and to end the dowry practise in my Maratha community," Sheetal's suicide note said.

This is the second such incident in the village in just over a year. Mohini Bhise (18) committed suicide in January last year so that her poor farmer father didn't have to pay dowry for her marriage.

Mohini, who was academically bright, hanged herself in her house. In her suicide note, the teenager questioned the continuance of dowry custom despite the legal ban.

"Why does one pay dowry?" she had asked in the note, while instructing her father not to conduct any religious rituals after her death.