05 March,2014 07:30 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
Victim's former lover had shot a video of them in intimate position and later blackmailed and threatened to upload the video, when she refused to get sexually involved with him
A day after the police recorded a 28-year-old housewife's death as suicide, it has come to light that her ex-lover and his family pushed her to take the extreme step. On February 28, Sahar resident Jaya Mane was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her residence by her husband when he returned home from work.
The husband was clueless as to why his wife decided to end her life, as there had been no altercations between them. But, the next day when his neighbour approached him and revealed the sequence of events that occurred prior to his wife's death, he got the shock of his life.
The neighbour told the husband that on the day of the incident, from a small hole in the tin shed partitioning their rooms, she witnessed a family of five from the neighbourhood mercilessly beating and stripping his wife, after which she took her life.
Her husband and the witness then approached the local police station, after which the five - Eknath Nikam (32), his wife, father, mother and sister were picked up for questioning by the cops. Sex, lies and videotape
During interrogation, the police got to know that Eknath had an affair with Jaya last year, during which he had made an MMS of them in the act. "Eknath and Jaya had an affair for three months. During this period, he had filmed them in intimate positions.
Later, when Jaya refused to get sexually involved, Nikam began blackmailing her and threatened to upload the video on the Internet, if she did not continue seeing him," said PI Raghunath Dalvi from Sahar police station.
Twist in the tale
On February 28, Eknath's wife learnt of the affair, and to save himself, he showed the video to her, accusing Jaya of harassing him and blackmailing him. "On hearing this, Eknath's wife, his mother and sister marched to Jaya's residence and beat her up.
They tore off her saree and slapped her until she became unconscious. Eknath and his father also joined the women in the assault and had warned her to stay away from Eknath," said PI Mohan Waghmare, the investigating officer.
Unable to bear the embarrassment, Jaya hanged herself a few minutes after the Nikams left her house. According to the police, nobody witnessed the Nikams entering Mane's house except the complainant.
"Jaya's husband was unaware of her affair or the harassment inflicted on his wife. After his neighbour, who is the complainant in the case, approached us and narrated the events, we arrested them for abetment to suicide," said Waghmare.
