Pune woman's suicide: police say 50 tola gold, Rs 25 lakh cash given at 2019 wedding

New details have emerged in the suicide of Payal Pawar-Jhambare in Pune. According to police, Payal sent a message to her brother before taking her life, holding her mother-in-law responsible. Police also said her in-laws had demanded 5 tola of gold for Diwali.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Milind Mohite said the Pawar family had given 50 tola of gold and Rs 25 lakh in cash at the time of the marriage of Payal and Akshay in 2019. Payal's family alleges that her husband kept subjecting her to mental harassment so that she would bear a son.

A case has been registered at Swargate police station against Payal's husband, his parents and his sister. The Jhambare family members have also been booked under the law against dowry death. Police have registered the case under certain sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

According to the police's preliminary information, Payal had a quarrel with her mother-in-law on Sunday, November 1, after which she left the house. A search began on the morning of Monday, November 2. As family members and relatives were looking for her, she was found dead in a flat in Akshay Heights society in the Mukundnagar area. Police are reported to have found no suicide note at the spot. The circumstances behind the death, the domestic quarrel and the allegations of deceit are therefore being investigated.

Police have arrested Payal's husband, Akshay Jhambare. The case is registered against Akshay, his mother Mangal Arvind Jhambare, his father Arvind Jhambare and his sister Akshata. Akshay has been taken into custody, and the search for the other accused continues.

Payal's parental family says her in-laws harassed her mentally and physically from soon after the wedding. They say 5 to 10 tola of gold was demanded every Diwali. Payal's family are farmers. They had asked for time until the next season because of drought conditions, but the harassment allegedly did not stop.

The complaint given to police also alleges that in 2022, when Payal was pregnant, she was pressured to have a son and made to suffer mental distress. When a daughter was born on March 30, 2023, the in-laws came to the hospital, quarrelled there and refused to take responsibility for Payal or the child.

Payal's body was found hanging in an old flat in Akshay Heights society in Mukundnagar, Pune. According to the complaint, at about 7 am the in-laws phoned Payal's family to say she had left the house. When her family reached the place, they found Payal dead, and her husband Akshay and his parents had fled.