Pregnant woman’s body exhumed after dowry death complaint; husband, in-laws booked

Agra: The body of a 24-year-old pregnant woman was exhumed from a graveyard in Muzaffarnagar Sunday for postmortem after her family alleged that she was killed for dowry and buried without a medical examination.Farheen Begum, of Bhanwara village, had married Shahid Ahmed, a daily wager from Riyawali Nagla village, on March 11, 2023. In a complaint, her father alleged that she had been harassed since her marriage over demands for an SUV and Rs 15 lakh as additional dowry.He alleged that Farheen was repeatedly subjected to physical and mental harassment by Shahid, her mother-in-law Saeeda and father-in-law Yameen for failing to meet the demands.

He further alleged that the three were responsible for her death on the night of June 29.According to the complaint, the accused buried Farheen’s body in the village graveyard on June 30 without informing her family or getting a postmortem conducted, allegedly to destroy evidence. The matter came to light after Farheen’s sister, Kausar, who lives in the same village, informed the family about her death. Ratnpuri police registered an FIR against Shahid, Saeeda and Yameen under BNS Section 80 for dowry death and began an investigation.

Following administrative approval, the body was exhumed under the supervision of Budhana sub-divisional magistrate Krishnakant Vishwakarma and circle officer Gajendra Pal Singh. Officers were deployed at the site as a large number of villagers gathered near the graveyard.Ratnpuri senior inspector Pawan Chaudhary said, “The cause of death will be known only after the autopsy report. Further action will be taken after we examine other evidence gathered during the investigation.”