Beaten ‘black and blue’ for dowry, wife of IPS officer turns to police, FIR filed

MEERUT: A 32-year-old woman, with her eyes bloodshot red and face swollen, approached a police station in Meerut to file a case against her husband, an IPS officer posted in Delhi, alleging that she was being regularly beaten “like animals” by him for the last several years on dowry and other pretexts.
Sensing the gravity of situation, police immediately registered an FIR against the accused, IPS officer Amit Nigam, who is currently posted as assistant commandant in sixth Nagaland Armed Police Battalion (NAP). He is currently deployed in Delhi. Among other sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Nigam was also booked under section 307 (attempt to murder). The case was filed at Meerut’s Nauchandi police station on Friday.
Other IPC sections included 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation). Relevant sections of Dowry Prohibition Act were also slapped against Nigam and also against his parents after the victim alleged that she also mentally and physically tortured by them for dowry.
The latest round of thrashing, according to victim Namrata Singh, took place at their Gurgaon residence, during which she was “physically tortured for hours at a stretch”. “After that, I left that home and came back to my parents in Meerut and decided file a case,” the victim said.
The office of the UP DGP has also taken note of the incident, sources said, adding that the state’s top police officer has asked the Meerut police to probe the case and file a report.
Singh and Nigam, both residents of Meerut, got married in November 2015.
“Eight to 10 days after the marriage, my in-laws started demanding Rs 1 crore as dowry. They started treating me like animals,” the complainant said, adding, “When my husband was transferred to Dimapur in Nagaland I accompanied him. But, he also started beating me over dowry.”
In her complaint, the victim alleged that all hell broke loose when she confronted Nigam over his “extramarital affairs” recently.
“When I returned home from work on April 30, my husband brutally thrashed me with his belt till the point I fainted,” Singh said.
After that, she returned home in Meerut and approached police.
“FIR was filed soon after the victim approached us. There are grave charges against the accused who is a serving IPS officer. Our investigation has begun and law will take its own course irrespective of who the offender is,” Meerut SSP Nitin Tiwari said.