Graduate beats up wife for not bearing son

Lekhnath, June 12:

An educated youth of Lekhnath Municipality in Kaski has been torturing his wife for the last five years for dowry and not bearing a son.

Ratnamani Adhikari, a political science graduate, of Eklekuna in Lekhnath-11 beat his wife Phanidra to within an inch of her life on Monday and fled the village, said neighbours.

A critically injured Phanindra is being treated at Manipal College’s Teaching Hospital in Pokhara. She has a fractured arm, and severe eye and head injuries. On Monday, the neighbours gave her whatever medical treatment they could muster and took her to the Western Zonal Hospital in Pokhara, which in turn referred her to Manipal Hospital as her condition was grave.

Adhikari’s neighbours said Ratnamani married Phanindra seven years ago. After the first-born turned out to be a daughter, Adhikari began torturing Phanindra, accusing her of not bringing any dowry.

Speaking from the hospital bed, she said she had fetched her daughter from school and barely begun the household chores when her husband called her to his room. When she went to the room, he gagged and trussed her up, bolted the door from inside and beat her mercilessly.

Her father and neighbours said Adhikari intended to torture her so much that she would leave him of her own accord.