The Bengaluru police have arrested the owners of a well-known city-based ice cream company for alleged dowry harassment linked to the suicide of a woman.
Aishwarya Rajesh, 26, the eldest daughter-in-law of Seetha Ice Creams owners, Giriyappa Gowda and Seethama K, died by suicide on October 26. The victim’s mother, Usha Subramanya, filed a police complaint alleging dowry harassment. Seetha Ice Creams makes the well known Dairy Rich brand of ice creams in Bengaluru.
The complaint did not name Aishwarya’s husband Rajesh Kapila, who is also a director of the ice cream company but names his younger brother Vijay Kapila, his wife, and an extended family of five others for alleged dowry harassment.
Aishwarya Rajesh, who hailed from Sullia in Dakshina Kannada, was found dead at her parents’ home in West Bengaluru on the evening of October 26. She had been reportedly living with her mother for over 20 days after an estrangement with her husband’s family.
According to the police complaint filed by the victim’s mother, her daughter married Rajesh Kapila in a grand ceremony five years ago but the marriage encountered problems due to the alleged harassment of Aishwarya Rajesh by her in-laws and their extended family.
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According to the complaint, Aishwarya and her husband moved away from the family home of their in-laws due to frequent tussles and began living in an independent apartment. The couple did not have children and her daughter was accused of being of bad character by her father-in-law, the mother of the victim has alleged.
The family was allegedly forcing her daughter to grant a divorce to her husband, Usha Subramanya has alleged. The family of her son-in-law was constantly belittled for being inferior in wealth, says the complaint. All the in-laws – other than her son-in-law – were involved in humiliating her daughter, the police complaint alleged.
“We have arrested five people, including the father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law and two others in the case. We are producing them in court today (November 3),” said a police officer in the Vijayanagar division where the case was registered on October 26.
