Pune woman found hanging; husband, in-laws booked for dowry death and abetment of suicide

The death of Payal Pawar-Jhambare, a 29-year-old married woman, in Pune's Mukundnagar area has caused an uproar across the state. According to the complaint, her in-laws had been harassing her to bring 10 tola of gold from her parental home on the occasion of Diwali. Fed up with the harassment, Payal hanged herself in an old flat belonging to her in-laws' family.

The night before her death, Payal sent a text message to her brother, after which her phone went off. This has now come to light.

Her brother, Rushikesh Pawar, narrated the sequence of events in his complaint to the police. On the basis of that complaint, police have registered a case against Payal's husband Akshay Arvind Jhambare, her mother-in-law, father-in-law and sister-in-law.

The complaint states that Payal gave birth to a daughter on March 30, 2023. It is alleged that her in-laws came to the hospital and quarrelled there. They said, "We wanted a boy, how did you have a girl, we will not take care of this girl," and left. According to the complaint, she was afterwards repeatedly taunted and abused for having a daughter, and continued to be subjected to physical and mental suffering.

Payal had returned to her in-laws' home from her parental home on November 1, 2026. At 9.18 pm, she sent a text message to the mobile phone of her brother, the complainant. It read, "My mother-in-law is responsible." The brother immediately phoned Payal, but she did not answer. He then called her husband. According to the complaint, the husband gave rude, evasive replies and cut the call, telling him not to get involved in a household quarrel.

Payal's family tried to reach her in-laws until late at night, but all their phones were switched off. In the morning, the in-laws themselves called to say that Payal had not come home. Suspicious, her parental family went to the in-laws' house at Jhambare Palace in Mukundnagar and asked about her. According to the complaint, no one told them anything. Finally, her husband Akshay said Payal might be in the flat opposite.

The husband and all of Payal's family members then went to that flat, but the door was bolted from inside. Her brother broke the glass of the door on the rear gallery, entered and opened the main door. When they looked in the kitchen, Payal was found hanging by a rope from a ceiling hook.

With the help of the police, she was rushed to Sassoon Hospital for treatment, but doctors declared her dead before treatment could begin.

On the statement of the deceased's brother, Swargate police have registered a case of dowry death and abetment of suicide against the husband, mother-in-law, father-in-law and sister-in-law. Police are investigating the case in depth.