Woman found dead

Siraha, May 3

Twenty-one-year-old Manisha Kumari Mandal of Khirauna in Siraha Municipality was found dead under mysterious circumstances this morning.

According to Siraha District Police Office, the 21-year-old was found dead in her own bed at around 2:00am. The incident was then reported to the police, who thereafter reached the site and sent the body to district hospital for a post-mortem.

The woman’s maternal family, however, suspect it was a murder committed over dowry, citing threats issued by the deceased’s in-laws to end the marriage if she failed to bring more dowry from her parents.

“Just a few days after she was married, her (Manisha’s) husband Ramaresh and his mother had started pressuring us for more dowry. But as I had given them as much as I could afford in dowry during the marriage and couldn’t meet their demands, they had been meting out physical and mental torture to my daughter,” said Manisha’s father Raghunath Mandal.

Manisha’s family filed an application at the district police today, seeking a probe. Acting on the application, police have arrested the husband and his mother.

“The husband told us that she might have died from a sickness she was suffering from for the past few days. Our investigation is under way,” said DPO Siraha Spokesperson and Deputy Superintendent of Police Madhavraj Kharel, adding, the post-mortem report would reveal the cause of the death.