Nikki Bhati was assaulted by her in-laws and set ablaze, following which she succumbed to her injuries at a hospital in Delhi. A second arrest was made in the dowry death case in Greater Noida on Sunday, with the victim’s mother-in-law taken under police custody.
This comes a day after Nikki Bhati’s husband, Vipin Bhati was arrested for her murder over dowry demands, following their marriage in 2016. The victim was assaulted by her in-laws and set ablaze, following which she succumbed to her injuries at a hospital in Delhi. Two videos of the incident, one of them purportedly recorded by Nikki’s sister Kanchan, who was also married in the same family, emerged after the incident came to light.
In one video, Nikki’s husband and mother-in-law are seen assaulting her, with her husband dragging her out of the house by her hair. The second video showed Nikki walking down the stairs while on fire. Kanchan managed to partially record a video of the assault before passing out. Following the incident, Vipin put up emotional social media posts on her death, portraying Nikki’s death as suicide. However, he was later arrested by the police and shot in the leg while trying to flee custody on Sunday.
Speaking with reporters, Vipin said he had no remorse regarding the incident, claiming that Nikki had died “on her own”. “Fights between husband and wife are common,” he said, hours after being injured in a police encounter. The victim’s family has raised demands for justice, with her mother stating that she had complained of abuse at her in-laws’s house twice before, following which she was brought back home.
“We brought her back home also a couple of times, but she was taken back on promises. But it kept going on,” Nikki’s mother said. She further said that they had given Vipin a car, a motorcycle, and gold during their marriage and after the birth of their son, “but he wanted even more”.
