[Watch] Odisha MP Bhartruhari Mahtab Responds To ‘Dowry Torture’ Slur

Bhubaneswar: Lok Sabha MP from BJD Bhartruhari Mahtab found himself in a hot soup after his daughter-in-law filed a dowry case against him and his family members at Bhopal Mahila police station on August 16.

Sakshi (34), a resident of Mahadev Parisar in Bhopal, had tied the knot with Bhartruhari ‘s son Lokranjan Mahtab on December 12, 2016, in New Delhi.

In her complaint, she alleged being physically and mentally tortured by her husband and in-laws, whom she also accused of not returning wedding gifts worth Rs 2.5 crore and throwing her out of the house. She further alleged having received death threats from them.

Four days after the wedding, her in-laws allegedly refused to accept her and Sakhi’s parents, somehow, convinced them to take her to Cuttack, she said.

She alleged that the family treated her like a maid and asked her to stay in a room under the stairs, which was in a deplorable state and infested with rats. She was not allowed to enter the place of worship in the house and her father-in-law’s impertinence troubled her.

On January 30, 2017, she was sent to Gwalior as her husband despised her presence in the house, she said in her complaint, adding that she later shifted to her parental place in Bhopal.

Her mother-in-law later reasoned out the treatment being meted to her to ‘insufficient’ dowry she brought during the wedding, she said.

Sakshi had even moved the court for restoration of conjugal rights, but her husband refused to depose.

Sakhi said that when her repeated attempts to return to her in-laws’ place failed, she realised that the wedding was a just medium for the Mahatab family to extort dowry.

Based on her allegation, the Bhopal police have booked the MP, his wife Maheswata Mahtab and son Lokranjan under Sections 498 (a) (subjecting a woman to cruelty), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), and provisions of the Dowry Prohibition Act.

“Sakshi moved a court and in 2018, it asked Mahtab and his family to allow her to stay at their house in New Delhi. But when Sakshi went there, they did not even open the gate of the house for her. Despite repeated attempts when Mahtab’s family did not accept her, she filed the police complaint,” said Ajeeta Nayar, a local police officer told the media.

The MP said that his son’s divorce proceedings are pending in a Delhi court for two years after a failure in reconciliation efforts. “The husband and wife hardly stayed together for 4-5 days. She has been staying in Bhopal for the last 4 years. The dowry harassment case looks like an afterthought and nothing like, what has been alleged, happened,” he added.

Check his response here: