Ambika could take on world, but not dowry

Ambika, an MCom topper at Panjab University, had never really given much thought to the demon of dowry. It belonged to another world, far re...

Ambika, an MCom topper at Panjab University, had never really given much thought to the demon of dowry. It belonged to another world, far removed from hers. On Sunday, it devoured her. She was only 29.

Ambika, who had just left her deputy manager’s job with HDFC for a job with the Canadian Consulate, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her bedroom. Her husband, Gagan Gupta who runs a family graphics business in Chandigarh, and in-laws have now been arrested for allegedly driving her to suicide with their incessant demands for dowry.

Today Vijay Shingari, Ambika’s father, a stenographer with the Punjab Irrigation Department, regrets giving in to the greed of his daughter’s in-laws. ‘‘First, we spent Rs 15 lakh on the marriage, then we gave in to their demand for a car. Only a month ago, they had asked for Rs 10 lakh after she returned from a sponsored trip to Australia with her husband and son.’’ All this in the hope that his daughter would live happily ever after.

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Now he regrets having imposed his idea of marital bliss on her. ‘‘I still remember the day she came back home after landing her first job as a lecturer of Economics at Khalsa College in Chandigarh. She said: ‘‘Papa, I am your son.’’

Somewhere along the line he forgot that, even when as landed one prize job after the other. ‘‘HDFC offered her a job after hearing about her excellent work at ICICI and Bank of Punjab,’’ he wipes a stray tear, pointing to Ambika, framed on the wall.

The suicide came as a shock to the family. ‘‘She couldn’t have done that, she was always inspiring others to face challenges head on. I admit there was too much pressure on her, but…,’’ her brother Dinesh Shingari, an engineer, struggles to maintain his composure.

The family is convinced it was murder. ‘‘The distance between the bed and the ceiling fan was less than Ambika’s height. How could she hang herself?’’

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Ambika’s was an arranged marriage. ‘‘We found Gagan in the matrimonial columns of a newspaper,’’ says Vijay. At the outset, it seemed like a match made in heaven. ‘‘They used to talk for hours every day, but things soured soon after marriage in 2000,’’ remembers her mother Prem.

The dowry demands continued even after she gave birth to a son, Agam, two-and-a-half years ago. The toddler has now told police that Gagan beat up his mother on the day of her death.

The family alleges her in-laws, Ved Prakash Gupta and Nirmal Gupta, even began to meddle in her career.

Neighbours like Jagdish Lal Bajaj, who have known Ambika since childhood, look dazed as they leaf through her albums. ‘‘She was such a go-getter, why did she suffer all this? Why couldn’t she just get way?’’ That’s one question which everyone is asking.