Man Lets Brother, Friend Rape Wife After She Refuses To Give Him Money

A man in India allegedly let his brother and a friend rape his wife after she refused to give him money and a car.

The incident took place in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. In a police complaint filed Monday, the 27-year-old woman said that she got married to the man three years ago. A few months later, her husband and his parents demanded half a million Indian rupees (about $6,700) in cash and a luxury car as dowry, which is money or goods given from the bride to their future spouse upon marriage.

"I got married three years ago. My parents had given (me) a lot as dowry. After a few months, my husband and his family demanded Rs 5 lakh in cash and a luxury car. When I refused to press my father for dowry, they started torturing me," the woman wrote in the complaint, Telangana Today reported.

"When I got pregnant, they forced me to have an abortion. They started beating me up. My husband forced me into unnatural offences. When I moved to my parents’ house, he persuaded me to come back and I agreed," she further wrote.

Last week, her husband allegedly got her gang-raped by a friend and her brother-in-law and also threatened that this would "continue" if she did not agree to his demands, Deccan Herald reported.

After the woman filed the complaint, 12 members of her husband’s family were booked for several offenses, including gang rape, cruelty to woman, unnatural offences and voluntarily causing a woman to miscarry.

Confirming the incident, a police officer said, "We registered a case on the basis of the complaint. The accused are yet to be arrested."

The dowry system in India is an ancient tradition in which the bride’s parents give money, cars, homes or other material goods to the groom’s family for looking after their daughter.

According to reports, at least 20 women in India die every day as a result of harassment over dowry. These women are either murdered or compelled to kill themselves.