On the night of December 9, a 34-year-old Indian man committed suicide. Next to his body was a sign that read “justice is due”.
Atul Subhash left a detailed 24-page suicide note and an 81-minute video in which he blamed trouble in his marriage and divorce.
A book and a video containing sad details about his life, spread on social media and caused outrage.
A computer engineer from the southern city of Bengaluru has accused his estranged wife Nikita Singhania, her mother and brother of abusing and abusing him – allegations they deny. The three were arrested after a few days and the court sent them back for 14 days.
News of Subhash's tragic death galvanized men's rights activists and sparked a wider debate about India's strict dowry laws.
Many say that since divorce cases are on the rise, the law is misused by women to abuse their husbands, even forcing them to kill themselves. India's supreme court has also considered it, with one judge describing it as “legal terrorism” intended to be used as a shield and not as a killer's weapon.
Women's activists point out that dowry still kills thousands of women every year.
Subhash and Sinhania (second from right) got married in 2019, but had been separated for three years. [Bengaluru police]
Subhash and Singania got married in 2019, but they lived separately for three years and Subhash said he was not allowed to meet their four-year-old son. It is said that his wife filed “false cases” in the courts, accusing him of cruelty, abuse of dowry and so on.
In the video, he accused the Sinhania family of “fraud” and said they wanted 30m rupees ($352,675; £279,661) to drop the charges, 3m rupees for visitation rights to their son and asked to increase the monthly maintenance from Rs. 40,000 to 40,000. 200,000 rupees.
He then talked about the many long trips he had taken in the past few years to attend the trial and accused the judge of being abusive, demanding bribes from him and mocking him. A notice apparently issued by a judge refers to the allegations as “baseless, defamatory and defamatory”.
News of the suicide sparked protests in several cities. Many took to social media to demand justice for Subhash.
They said that his suicide should be considered as a murder case and Singhanania should be targeted, they want him to be arrested and sent to prison for life.
On X (formerly Twitter), thousands tagged the American multinational company where he worked, demanding they fire him.
After the outrage, the Bengaluru police opened an investigation against those listed in the suicide note. On 14 December, Singhannia, her mother and brother were arrested on charges of “attempted suicide”.
During questioning, Singhannia denied allegations that she was harassing Subhash for money, the Times of India quoted the police as saying.
Earlier, Singhana had also filed serious charges against her husband. In her 2022 divorce petition, she had accused him, her parents and her brother of abusing her for dowry. He said they were not happy with the gifts his parents gave him when they got married and wanted another 1m rupees.
Men's rights activists held protests in many cities demanding justice for Atul Subhash [BBC]
Dowry has been banned in India since 1961, but the bride's family is still expected to give money, clothes and jewelry to the groom's family. According to a recent study, 90% of Indian marriages involve them and the payments between 1950 and 1999 amounted to a quarter of a trillion dollars.
And according to the National Crime Records Bureau, 35,493 brides were killed in India between 2017 and 2022 – an average of 20 women a day – for dowry. In 2022 alone, more than 6,450 brides were killed for dowry – that's an average of 18 women every day.
Singhania said that his father died of a heart attack shortly after his marriage when Subhash's parents went to him for money. She also revealed that her husband used to threaten her and “beat me after drinking alcohol and treated the husband-wife relationship like a monster” by seeking unnatural sex. Subhash had denied all these allegations.
Police say they are still investigating the allegations and counter-allegations but Subhash's suicide has led to growing calls to rewrite – and even repeal – India's strictest anti-bribery law – Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.
This law was introduced in 1983 after many cases of dowry deaths in Delhi and other places in the country. It was being reported daily that brides were burned to death by their husbands and in-laws and the killings were often referred to as “kitchen accidents”. Angry protests by female MPs and activists forced parliament to introduce the law.
As lawyer Sukriti Chauhan said, “the law has come after a long struggle” and “allows women to seek justice in cases of domestic violence”.
Nikita Singhania had accused Subhash (pictured here with his mother) of his parents and brother of abusing him for dowry – they denied the allegations. [BBC]
But in recent years, this law has been in the headlines, men's activists say that it is misused by women to abuse their husbands and relatives.
The supreme court of India has also warned against misuse of the law on several occasions. The day Subhash's suicide was reported, the Supreme Court also flagged – in an unrelated case – the “increasing tendency to abuse the provision as a tool to liberate the husband and his family”.
Amit Deshpande, founder of the Mumbai-based men's rights group Vaastav Foundation, says the law is being used “mainly to blackmail men” and that “there are thousands of others who are suffering like Subhash”.
Their hotline, he says, receives about 86,000 calls every year and most of the cases are related to marital disputes including cases of false dowry and attempted extortion.
“The cottage industry was created by law. In every case, 18-20 suspects must all hire lawyers and go to court to seek bail. There have been cases where a two-month-old child was born. or an ill nonagenarian was named in dowry abuse complaints.
“I know these are extreme examples but the whole system does this in one way or another. The police, law enforcement and politicians ignore our concerns,” he said.
Men's rights activists say the dowry law is used “mainly to cheat men” [Getty Images]
Mr Deshpande says that according to government crime statistics for more than 50 years, the majority of male suicides are married men – and family discord was the cause of one in four suicides among them.
Patriarchy, he says, also works against men. “Women have laws and are sympathetic, but people laugh at men who are abused or beaten by their wives. If Subhash was a woman he would have enforced some laws. So, let's make the laws gender neutral and extend the same. justice to people so that lives can be saved.”
There should also be strict punishment for those who use the law recklessly, otherwise it will not be a deterrent, he adds.
Ms. Chauhan agrees that women who abuse the law should be punished, but says any law can be abused. The Bengaluru case is in court and if it is proved to be false, he should be punished, he said.
“But I don't support it being gender neutral. The need for that is narrowing as we ignore the need for special measures that acknowledge that women are disproportionately affected by violence.”
Those who follow Section 498A, he says, “are driven by patriarchy and because it is a women's law, efforts are being made to beat it”.
“It came after years of social injustice. And this sovereignty remains true in our generation and will continue for generations to come.”
Although this law states that demand for dowry is rampant and thousands of brides continue to be killed because of it.
The need of the hour, he adds, is to “make the law strong”.
“If three out of 10 cases are false, the courts should issue a sentence. But women still suffer a lot in this country, so don't ask for the law to be repealed.”
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