Kerala woman does FB live saying husband threatened to kill her, dowry case filed

“I don’t know what to say and how to say. I am posting the video from a lake resort, where my husband works as a General Manager. The management of the resort has asked me to leave. He is knocking on the door, but I won't open it as I am scared of him. Ours was a love marriage — I was a Christian and he is a Hindu. I converted to Hinduism to marry him. We got married at the Arya Samaj in Kozhikode. He had made all the arrangements for the conversion and wedding,” a women doing a Facebook Live on Monday midnight could be heard saying.

Dilna Alphonsa, a 29-year-old woman from Kerala married Abhijith Balan in 2014, and converted to Hinduism from Christianity at the time of her wedding. 

She posted a video asking for help saying that her husband, a General Manager at a resort located at Vaikom in Kottayam district has been harassing her for dowry and beat her up. The Vaikom Police has registered a case against her husband, Abhijith Balan, for harassment in the name of dowry under section 489A.

Dilna added that Abhjith has initiated divorce proceedings, and that the case is going on. “My husband and his father are now demanding dowry, which I can’t give”, she says.

Dilna accused her father-in-law of threatening to kill her if she didn't obey, and told her that he was close to many politicians and hence it would be hard to bring him to book. 

“My husband and I registered our marriage at the Kozhikode Corporation. Now, he says that these weren’t valid. When we got married, my husband was an assistant sales manager in a firm. I was told that his monthly salary is Rs 18,000. Now, he says that I am not a wife matching up to his current status and that he wants me to leave. He has threatened to kill me if I don't leave the place. I have nowhere to go. I can’t go back home as the marriage was against the will of my parents,” Dilna says, crying.

The couple had been having issues, and had a spat that very morning when he beat her. "He tried to kill me, he strangled me. There is a bump on my forehead. He says he wants me to leave because I used to be a Christian”, she says in the video. 

Dilna has been living with Abhijith in the resort for the past three years. “We have been living here since he began working here. I lodged a complaint with the Vaikom Police on Tuesday, but the police were not so keen to take action. Later, they took me to the Taluk Hospital in Vaikom, and from there to the Medical College in Kottayam after I vomited in the afternoon. Today, I am going to get some scans and other tests”, she told TNM.

The Vaikom police said that her statement has been taken and a case has been registered against Abhijith for dowry harassment and physical assault. However, the police are yet to take the statement of the accused. “The investigation has begun and it’s on the right track,” the police said. Abhijith Balan was unavailable for a response.

The state Women's Commission was informed by a woman journalist in Thiruvananthapuram about the incident. "We have been trying to contact her since yesterday but there was no response," Women's Commission member Thara told TNM.