Sule Announces Campaign Against Dowry From June 22

Expelled NCP leader, son arrested in city; latter's wife faced physical abuse earlier, says Damania

- Faisal Malik

MUMBAI/PUNE: While on Friday morning, the Pimpri Chinchwad police arrested suspended Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Rajendra Hagawane, and his son and former party worker, Sushil, for their alleged role in harassing Vaishnavi, Rajendra's daughter-in-law, for dowry which led her to die by suicide on May 16, in Mumbai, activist Anjali Damania presented evidence of the family perpetrating similar violence on their other daughter-in-law, Mayuri Jagtap (Sushil's wife), which was reported by her family to the state women's commission on November 6, 2024. The commission, headed by NCP leader Rupali Chakankar, paid no heed to the complaint, alleged Damania.

Damania posted a copy of Jagtap's complaint addressed to Chakankar, on X on Friday afternoon. The Jagtaps were seeking the commission's intervention against the Hagawanes' growing violent acts. They said the family was putting pressure on them for an SUV—Toyota Fortuner—and had dared them against approaching police, saying they were politically connected and knew officers in the law enforcing agency. Making the letter public, Damania said, "Had the commission taken serious cognisance of the complaint by Mayuri's parents, Vaishnavi would not have died by suicide." Chakankar, however, called the allegations baseless, saying after receiving the complaint she had alerted the local police within 24 hours, who had followed up the case.

The letter drafted by Mayuri's brother Meghraj and their mother Lata, was accompanied by pictures of injury marks on Mayuri's body.

Meanwhile, when Chakankar met Vaishnavi's parents in Pune on Friday afternoon, people gathered around her to question the functioning of the women's commission.