Delhi Woman 'Abused For Years' Strangles Husband, Held

A woman from Delhi has been arrested for killing her husband. 32-year-old Shilpi Adhikari got fed up of the abuse she had endured because of her husband and strangled him to death when he was in an inebriated state.

"He dragged me from the bed each night after he came home drunk and thrashed me. Humiliated me in front of the neighbours. I threatened him that I would kill him. He did not listen. He did not leave me an option,” she told the Delhi police.

She tried to pass his death off as a natural occurrence, and had slept next to her husband’s body for two days. She told her neighbours that he had died of natural circumstances on the third day of his death.

An informer noticed the marks on her husband’s body right before the cremation, and called police inspector Ashish Dalal at the Kapashera police station.

She had been married to him for 12 years and had been forced to endure abuse. Her husband used to take away all the money she earned and spend it on alcohol. Whenever she refused to give him money, he would beat her up. Once, he reportedly, beat her for seven hours straight, an investigating officer told the Hindustan Times.

She has confessed to her crime and a case has been registered.

She was part of the housekeeping staff at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Her children study in their village in Midnapur. Her husband would refuse to pay their school fees and spent all the money on alcohol.

We need to encourage women to report domestic violence. In 2005, the government of India passed a legislation on domestic violence called the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA). It is a civil law aimed at providing relief to millions of women including wives, live-in partners, mothers, daughters and sisters affected by violence in their homes.

Also Read: New form of Domestic Abuse: Economic Abuse