Satyam Yadav, a 26-year-old Congress councillor from Nangloi in west Delhi, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her bedroom.
NEW DELHI – She won the municipal elections but was far from empowered. Satyam Yadav, a 26-year-old Congress councillor from Nangloi in west Delhi, strangled her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter before killing herself on Thursday because her husband’s family allegedly wanted Rs 10 lakh and a Honda City car.
Satyam, a post-graduate in English, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her bedroom on the morning of her birthday. Her daughter, Vanshika, lay unconscious and later died in hospital. Satyam had been elected to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation from Nangloi East.
Police have registered a case of dowry death (304b IPC) against her in-laws. Cases of murder (of the child), subjecting a woman to cruelty (498a) and breach of trust (406) have also been filed. Satyam’s father-in-law is a small-time Congress leader.
Satyam Yadav’s brother, Prashant Singh, who is employed in an NDMC school in Chanakyapuri, has, however, refused to accept that her sister committed suicide. “My sister was facing harassment at the residence of her in-laws who were demanding a Honda City car and Rs 10 lakh cash. When we told them we cannot pay up, they murdered her and my niece,” he claimed.
Police have dismissed talk that Satyam had left behind a suicide note blaming certain individuals for her death. They said they would wait for the postmortem report to ascertain the daughter’s cause of death. “We are not speculating on the sequence of events and, therefore, not ruling out the involvement of a third person. As is customary in cases where a wo8man dies within seven years of marriage, an SDM inquiry has been ordered. Satyam got married in February 2010,” said additional CP (west) V Renganathan.
