The bodies of 3 sisters were found in a well in India

Sardar Meena searched for days in vain for his three daughters and two grandchildren after they went missing from the family home in Dodu village in the Indian state of Rajasthan, until their bodies were found inside an old well in the arid countryside.

Kalu, 27, a mother of a 4-year-old and a 27-day-old, and her two younger sisters Kamlish, 20, and Mamata, 22, both pregnant, were married to three siblings, and lived with them in their family home in Dodo.

Shortly before her death, the youngest of them, "Status", wrote on her WhatsApp account - which was transmitted to AFP by her cousin - accusing the three couples of intent to kill, and stating, "We do not want to die, but death is better than ill-treatment."

Four days after the gloomy news, Sardar Mina, his wife, their eldest son, their three other daughters and their relatives were still weeping, as he photographed them lined up on the shelves of the family's modest home in Chabia village, near Dodo.

A Jaipur police officer told AFP that the authorities were treating their deaths as suicide, pending the results of the autopsy, but that the father accused the three women, accusing his in-laws of abusing their wives and causing them moral harassment for years.

The eldest daughter, Kalou, was taken to hospital in April after being beaten by her husband and his family.

Despite the violence, they said they had to go back to live in the marital home and go back to their husbands.”

Given that divorce is considered a disgrace in most Indian families, Mina used to allow his daughters to return to their husbands “to save his family’s honor.” Mina indicated that his in-laws were criticizing his daughters because of their meager dowries in particular.

The deceased's husbands, mother and sister were arrested on charges of dowry-related harassment and domestic violence.


“They bothered them a lot, but they hoped things would change one day,” Sonu, another daughter of Mina, said of her sisters. Dowry has been outlawed in Indian law for more than 60 years, but violations are widely recorded.

"We've already given them a lot of things..." the father said, including televisions, a refrigerator, and furniture.

"I am a father, not girls, and there are limits to my ability," he added.

He expressed his pride in their university degrees, saying, "I provided them with an education, and this in itself was difficult."

Last year, an Indian from the southern state of Kerala was sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife with cobra bites in order to seize her property.

His marriage to her had previously secured him a new car and more than six thousand dollars.

Last month, a Kerala court sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for forcing his wife to commit suicide for harassing her over her dowry.

Data from the National Bureau of Criminal Records showed that about 7,000 housewives were killed and 1,700 others committed suicide in 2020 due to dowry cases.

A national survey of family health indicated that about 30% of married women were subjected to domestic violence, but defenders of women's rights emphasized that these figures are only a few of the realistic numbers.

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