DEHRADUN: In a shocking case of domestic violence in Dehradun’s Selaqui area, a 32-year-old married woman was allegedly locked in a toilet for 10 months and brutally assaulted by her in-laws, including attacks on her private parts with bottles and sticks. The incident came to light after the woman’s father, a retired Havildar from the Indian Army with 33 years of service, lodged a police complaint at the Selaqui police station on Monday evening after rescuing his daughter from her in-laws' place on May 26.
Details of the Abuse
Speaking to the Times of India, the father alleged that the ‘inhuman treatment’ of his daughter began soon after she gave birth to twins in February last year. The identities of the woman and her family members have been withheld due to the sensitivity of the case, including allegations of physical assault on private parts. “My daughter was married in 2024 to a Kendriya Vidyalaya teacher who was the only child of his parents. It was an arranged marriage through a mediator. Initially, after seeing the family, we thought it was a nice one. That notion shattered just a few months after the marriage as my daughter’s mother-in-law started harassing her for unknown reasons,” he said.
Escalation After Childbirth
The ex-serviceman further alleged that the torture escalated after she gave birth to twins, including a boy, in February last year. “During her pregnancy, she was at our place. After she delivered the babies, her in-laws came only once to see her, and that too with a condition that she would hand over the twins to them. After a few days, she and the babies went to their place. However, after reaching there, she was separated from her newborns and wasn’t even allowed to breastfeed them. My daughter was then locked in a room and sometimes in the toilet from July 2025 to May 2026 under horrific conditions,” he claimed.
Sharing more details, the woman’s mother told TOI that during this period of confinement, she was fed only plain rice with onion, green chili, and salt. “Post delivery, when she needed a proper diet to recover her health, she was also forced to cook her own food outside the home on firewood in the winters. We don’t even know how her twins were being treated all this while. During the whole period, whenever we called her in-laws to speak to our daughter, they would only reply that she was sleeping or bathing. Sometimes, when we insisted on speaking to her on the phone, they would tell us that we were destroying her marital life by doing that while using the choicest of insulting slurs against us,” she added.
Rescue and Aftermath
Unable to speak to their daughter, the family decided to go to her in-laws’ place on May 26 in the Selaqui area. “We reached there after being assisted by the village head. Even then, they initially didn’t let us see her face, saying that she was fine and why were we hell-bent on destroying her marital life. After much effort, when we entered inside, our hearts were shattered to see her in an inexplicable condition. They had beaten her with sticks, pipes, and every other item. Her mother-in-law, who tortured her the most, even attacked her on her privates with a bottle and pipe. They also pulled her hair, leaving her scalp bare on several spots. She wasn’t even treated as a fellow human, let alone being treated as a daughter-in-law,” the mother added in a tear-choked voice over the phone.
She further alleged that her husband too joined his parents in assaulting his wife whenever he came home from Delhi. She also alleged that when they confronted her in-laws about her condition, her father-in-law told her that “he had clicked her objectionable photos while assaulting her.” “It shocked me to the core that how a man who is in a relationship like her father could do such a despicable thing. We just couldn’t understand the reason behind such brutal treatment to our daughter. Her in-laws were just whimsical. If we hadn’t rescued her on Monday, then they would have killed her. While she is now with us, her two kids are still with her in-laws. We want justice for our daughter and want our grandkids with us as we don’t know what they must be doing to them,” she added.
Police Action
TOI contacted the woman’s husband and her mother-in-law for a comment on the allegations but received no reply. Meanwhile, acting on the complaint, police have registered an FIR against the woman’s husband and her parents-in-law under BNS sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 127(4) (wrongful confinement), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), and 352 (intentional insults). Circle officer (Sahaspur), Anuj Kumar, told TOI, “Police after registering the FIR, have started an investigation to examine the allegations. Prima facie, we have found injury marks on the woman’s body. We are waiting for a detailed medical examination report after which further legal action will be taken against the accused. No arrests have been made so far.”
