A distraught wife in India will be scarred for life after her husband of
eight years allegedly cut off her nose because her family couldn’t
afford a marriage dowry.
Kamlesh Rathore, 25, from Shahjahanpur, in Uttar Pradesh, northern
India, said her husband, Sanjeev Rathore, 27, had been demanding a dowry
of Rs 50,000 (£550) ever since they got married.
A dowry is part of Indian custom and is either cash, jewellery or land
that the bride's family gives to the groom as a condition of any
marriage.
Kamlesh said: ‘He harassed me every day for the dowry. He was constantly demanding Rs 50,000.
I repeatedly told him that my father is very poor and he cannot afford
such an amount but he did not listen and used to threaten that he’ll
chop off my nose. He has beaten me for years. He’s used belts, slippers,
sticks and has always tortured me. He used to accuse me of working as a
prostitute and threaten to sell me. He was always drunk. During our
eight years of marriage he was very harsh with me,’ she said.