Lucknow:
A 33-year-old engineer in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah has died by suicide after accusing his wife and in-laws of harassment. Mohit Yadav recorded a video alleging threats and false cases filed against him by his in-laws. “If I don’t get justice even after my death, throw my ashes into the drain,” he said in the video.
Yadav had checked into the Jolly Hotel outside the Etawah railway station on Thursday. He did not leave his room the next morning. The hotel staff found him hanging in the evening, said Abhay Nath Tripathi, Superintendent of Police (City).
A resident of Auraiya district, Yadav worked as a field engineer in a cement company. He and Priya were in a relationship for seven years after they got married in 2023.
Priya was pregnant when she secured a private teaching job in Bihar two months ago, but her mother made her abort the child, Yadav alleged in the video. His mother-in-law also kept all her jewellery with her, he claimed. He said he had no dowry demand when they got married, but his wife threatened to file false cases against all his family members.
“My wife threatened me that if I didn’t register my house and property in her name, she would implicate my family in a dowry case. Her father, Manoj Kumar, filed a false complaint, and her brother threatened to kill me,” he said in the video. Since then, he claimed his wife started fighting with him every day and that her family supported her.
Yadav ended the video apologising to his parents and urged them to throw his ashes into the drain if he doesn’t get justice even after his death.
He also reflected on the absence of a law to protect men from false complaints filed by women. “By the time you get this video, I will be gone from this world. I wouldn’t have taken this step if there were a law for men. I couldn’t tolerate the harassment by my wife and her family,” he said in the video.
Yadav had left for Kota but took a halt in Etawah, said his brother Tareen Pratap. The family was left shocked when they received his video on their phones on Friday morning.
A comment is awaited from Priya Yadav and her family.
The incident adds to a growing demand for a law protecting men against false charges by women. A string of similar incidents since the suicide of Atul Subhash, a techie in Bengaluru who accused his wife of filing false cases against him, last year, had raised an alarm among the men’s rights activists.
