Berhampur: In a shocking incident, a newly-married woman was allegedly killed by her in laws at Rangipur village under Golanthara police station in Ganjam district as the cash she had brought in as dowry had Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes which were recently demonetised by the Centre.
The deceased has been identified as Prabhasini of Rangipur village.
Sources said Prabhasini had married to one Laxmi Nahak of the same village on November 9. During the marriage, her parents had given Rs 1.70 lakh cash as dowry. But the groom’s family refused to take the money as the cash had contained old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes. However, the bride’s parents had promised to exchange the notes later and took some time to do it.
The deceased’s parents alleged that the in-laws of their daughter used to torture her after marriage and killed her too as they failed to exchange the demonetised notes.
"We had promised them (Prabhasini's in-laws) that we will handover the new currency notes after complying with bank's transaction procedure. In fact we were about to give them the money within 2/3 days. But before that they killed our daughter as we delayed to give them the amount" said mother of Prabhasini.
On the other hand, Prabhasini’s in-laws attributed her death to suicide.
"Since we objected to receive the currency notes which contained scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, they told us to get it exchanged and took some time. This is nothing to do with the death of Prabhasini as she committed suicide and we are not responsible for that", said Jhili Nahak, sister-in-law of Prabhasini.
Meanwhile a different angle has come to the notice of the police as it has begun investigation.
Few days back Laxmi had married to one Santoshi Pradhan, another lady in the same village. Police suspect that this might have provoked Prabhasini to end life as theirs was a love marriage.
"We are analysing all the angles and are waiting for the post mortem report", said Asish Singh, SP, Berhampur.