MIMS doctor accused of beating wife to death for dowry

A case of alleged dowry death came to light in the city on Sunday, sparking off protests by relatives of the victim.

The deceased has been identified as Tejaswini, wife of Dr Raghavendra, an assistant professor with the Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS). The protestors also pelted stones at Maruti Showroom building, belonging to Dr Raghavendra.

Tejaswini was found dead under suspicious circumstances at her husband’s house in Kallahalli in the city on Saturday night. Irate family members set afire a two-wheeler and a godown belonging to the victim’s husband on Sunday morning.

Tension prevailed for a while in front of the private hospital, where the protesters alleged that the hospital management were hand in glove with the accused by admitting a dead body. They even assaulted the hospital staff. They torched a godown building, that was let off to a private company — destroying goods worth lakhs of rupees. Tejaswini’s father Devaraju has lodged a complaint of dowry death at East police station in the city.  The complaint states that Raghavendra had been harassing Tejaswini, demanding dowry and also doubting her fidelity. Devaraju alleged that Raghavendra had killed Tejaswini for more dowry and had admitted her ‘body’ to the hospital.

Detail

Tejaswini — daughter of C Devaraju, a retired manager with Hopcoms in Channapatna — was married to Raghavendra in 2009. The couple have a two-year-old son. It is said that one kg gold ornaments, 10 kg silver articles and a Maruti car was given as dowry at the time of the wedding. Still, he was pestering for more dowry. A complaint has been made against Raghavendra’s father, mother, sisters and maternal uncle also. The body was handed over to the parents after postmortem.