AT INDIA’s largest burns centre in Victoria Hospital, Bangalore, a macabre scene is played out with horrifying regularity. A badly burnt woman is brought in by her husband and in-laws. The woman claims a kerosene stove burst in the kitchen, and the doctor notes her statement. Hours or days later she dies, and the police dismiss the case as an accident.
A new study, the first of its kind, provides appalling proof of what many in India already acknowledge – that many of these “accidents” are in fact dowry-related murders or forced suicides, acts of unimaginable violence against wives who…
