Teacher ends life after alleged dowry harassment by husband, in-laws

In a tragic case of dowry harassment, 29-year-old Anvita Sharma, a fine arts teacher at a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Delhi, was found dead in her Vasundhara home on Sunday. In a heartbreaking final WhatsApp message to her parents and brother, Anvita detailed years of mental and physical abuse at the hands of her husband, Dr. Gaurav Kaushik, and his family, writing, “He married my job, not me.”

Her message described relentless taunts, control over her finances, and a life reduced to servitude. “They wanted a working maid,” she wrote, accusing her husband of having access to all her bank accounts while finding fault in everything she did. She also pleaded with her parents to care for her four-year-old son, expressing her wish that he not grow up to be like his father.

Anvita’s family filed a police complaint, alleging that Kaushik’s family had demanded dowry, including ₹26 lakh worth of wedding expenses, gold, silver, and a car. They accused the in-laws of keeping Anvita’s salary, ATM cards, and documents under their control, and subjecting her to violence when she resisted.

Police have arrested Anvita’s husband, Gaurav Kaushik, and his father, Surendra Sharma. Her mother-in-law, Manju, is absconding. The accused have been charged under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) including:

Section 85 (Cruelty by husband or relatives)
Section 80(2) (Punishment for dowry death)
Section 115(2) (Voluntarily causing hurt)
Section 352 (Intentional insult to provoke breach of peace)
along with relevant sections of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.

ACP Abhishek Srivastava confirmed that after receiving her final message, Anvita’s family alerted Kaushik, who broke into the house to find her deceased.

#DowryDeath #JusticeForAnvita #EndDomesticViolence #StopDowrySystem