NEW DELHI: The husband of a woman who died by hanging in their Sharjah flat last month was detained at Thiruvananthapuram airport on Sunday and handed over to police. Police said Satheesh, 40, from Sasthamcotta in Kollam district, is accused of abetting the suicide of his wife Athulya, 29, who was found dead under suspicious circumstances on 19 July. A lookout notice had been issued against him. Immigration officials stopped him on arrival and handed him to local police, who said he would be given to the crime branch for investigation. Satheesh’s lawyer said he returned from Sharjah after the Kollam principal and sessions court granted him anticipatory bail. The court ruled that only the crime branch could arrest him, and that he must be released if he provides a bond of Rs 2 lakh with two sureties. The lawyer said the decision was based on Athulya’s death certificate, which listed the cause of death as “suicide by hanging.” Athulya’s family had filed a complaint accusing Satheesh of harassment since their marriage in 2014, allegedly due to dissatisfaction with the dowry. The FIR also says that two days before her death, he assaulted her, hitting her on the head with a plate and kicking her in the stomach. A case has been registered under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to abetment of suicide, cruelty by husband or relatives, voluntarily causing grievous hurt, and wrongful restraint, along with provisions of the Dowry Prohibition Act.
