As is well known, marriage in India is often accompanied by a dowry, and the dowry is largely considered a necessity.
If the dowry is insufficient, there is a chance that the bride’s family may be harassed by the groom’s family, and the bride herself may be mistreated, or even murdered.
In fact, since 2005, India has seen thousands of deaths each year due to dowry-related issues.
Although there has been a steady decline in recent years, in 2022, there were still over 6,000 such cases reported, and these are just the reported cases—unreported ones are likely even more numerous.
(Data from 2005-2022)
This is also one of the key reasons behind the deeply rooted patriarchal mindset in India: having a daughter means that, years later, a substantial amount of money will need to be paid as dowry. If the dowry is insufficient, the family might be harassed or coerced.
Although the Indian government enacted the Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961, this practice still persists in many places, and the word “prohibit” has not materialized in practice.
Recently, there was a case like this, where the victim was a man. Public sentiment in India has been outraged, and protests have spread to New York’s Times Square…
On the evening of December 9, 34-year-old Indian man Atul Subhash hanged himself. A note was found on his chest reading, “Justice is due.”
In addition, there was a 24-page suicide note found beside his body, which included a message to his son and long sections of accusations against his wife, her family, and the entire country of India. Below are some excerpts:
“Now I am gone, and there is no money left for them to take… Remember, you owe nothing to anyone… I hope you live with your heart, love and fight, use your brain to build beautiful things, and destroy all obstacles. Goodbye, my child.”
“My last wish: 1. I hope my case’s hearing is broadcast live. Everyone in this country should know about my case, understand how bad the legal system is, and see how these women misuse the law.”
“2. Rita Kausik is a judge from Uttar Pradesh, and I am afraid she will tamper with documents or pressure witnesses… I hope this case can be transferred to a Bangalore court, and she should not be involved.”
“3. Do not let my wife and her family come near my body.”
“4. Give the harshest punishment to those who have harassed me, although I don’t have much faith in our legal system. If someone like my wife can go unpunished, they will become even more rampant, and in the future, they will wrongfully accuse more sons…” 
(Atul’s final letter)
Apart from this letter filled with “endless grievances,” Atul also left behind an 81-minute long video just hours before his death. In the video, he detailed the troubles he encountered during his marriage and divorce, and how his wife harassed him…
(Atul’s 81-minute farewell video)
Atul was a senior executive at a tech company in Bangalore. His ex-wife, Nikita Singhania, worked at a multinational company in the United States. The couple, considered high-education and high-income in India, unfortunately proved the saying: money cannot buy happiness…
Atul and Nikita married in 2019, but by 2021, their marriage fell apart, and they separated.
By then, they had a son. According to Atul, Nikita deliberately denied him visitation rights for their child and initiated a series of legal actions, accusing him of abusing her, engaging in “dowry harassment,” and other illegal acts.
For example, in 2022, Nikita reported that her in-laws were demanding 1 million rupees, claiming the dowry was too little.
Atul was said to have occasionally abused alcohol and physically assaulted her, treating her “like an animal.”
She complained to her parents about her situation, but they advised her to be patient and continue living with her husband, hoping things would improve. However, nothing changed, and Atul’s father and brothers continued to hit her.
She also claimed that due to her in-laws’ dowry demands, her father’s health suddenly deteriorated, and he eventually suffered a stroke in August 2019 and passed away during treatment.
(Nikita, Atul, and two others on the right)
Atul refuted all these claims in his final letter.
First, regarding the allegation that “Atul and his family beat her,” Atul explained that she only lived at his father’s house for two days during their marriage, and after that, there was no interaction with his family.
As for Atul himself, he argued that if he had beaten her, there would surely have been signs of injury, possibly even fractures, but Nikita never presented any evidence—whether she didn’t want to show it, or simply didn’t have any?
As for the “one million rupee” claim, Atul pointed out that when Nikita left his house, she had stated that Atul’s salary was 4 million rupees, but when she filed the complaint, she increased it to 8 million.
With such a high salary, how could she be short of that one million rupee dowry?
According to Atul’s final letter, out of the nine lawsuits, some were still ongoing, some were dismissed by the court, and some were even withdrawn by Nikita herself, with the reason being that she “couldn’t remember how she originally filed the complaint.”
(Atul with his mother)
In addition, Atul claimed in his final letter that Nikita, together with the judge Rita Kausik mentioned earlier, had incited him to commit suicide, and the judge had even asked him for a bribe.
On March 21 of this year, Atul traveled from Bangalore to Jaunpur Court (where Nikita had moved after their divorce). He said to the judge, “If you check the National Crime Records Bureau data, you’ll find hundreds of thousands of men have committed suicide due to false accusations.”
At that point, Nikita sharply mocked him, saying, “Then why don’t you just kill yourself?”
The judge laughed and asked Nikita to leave the room. Afterward, he privately told Atul that the case could be resolved if Atul paid 500,000 rupees.
Atul simply replied that he didn’t have the money, only evidence. The judge asked him to leave.
On April 10, Atul’s mother-in-law asked him outside the court, “You haven’t killed yourself yet? I thought we would hear the news of your suicide today. Didn’t you tell the judge?”
Atul asked, “How would you celebrate if I die?”
His mother-in-law laughed and answered, “Your father will pay money, and everything your husband owns will be given to his wife. After you die, your parents won’t live much longer either, and your daughter-in-law will inherit the estate. Your whole family will end up in court.”
(Illustration)
Atul reflected on this conversation in his final letter, saying that he was very frustrated at the time: “I realized that I had become the source of all evil. The harder I worked, the better I performed, the more my family would be harassed and extorted.”
“Now, I’m gone, and there’s no more money, no reason to harass my elderly parents and brothers. Perhaps I destroyed my body, but I also saved everything I cherished.”
Thus, Atul paid with his life to finally gain people’s attention.
Currently, Nikita, her mother, and her brother have been arrested by the police on tentative charges of inciting suicide. She denies the charges, and the investigation is still ongoing.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, after Atul’s death was reported by the media, Indian men were outraged, and protests erupted in cities across India. In addition to the previously mentioned protests at Times Square in New York, there were protests in various cities across India…
(Protests in multiple cities in India)
Some people even marched with candles at night…
Kolkata region…
Lucknow region…
(Protests in multiple cities in India)
Even Jumboking, the largest chain of burger restaurants in Western India, publicly showed support for Atul, holding a moment of silence on the receipts…
(Jumboking receipt with a message of silence for Atul)
Indian men seem to have long “suffered under the Dowry Prohibition Act.” Anyone dissatisfied with their husband can file a “dowry harassment” complaint…
How should we view this? Although this argument may sound extreme in the context of India, it’s not entirely without merit.
“Based on this law, an entire industry has been created. Each case involves 18 to 20 people as defendants, all of whom must hire lawyers and seek bail in court. In some cases, even two-month-old infants or sick 90-year-olds are listed as ‘suspects’ of dowry harassment.”
“I know this is an extreme example, but our system, to some extent, allows such phenomena. The police, judiciary, and politicians ignore our concerns.”
Currently, the case is still under investigation, and everything remains as Atul presented it in his final letter. Whether there will be any twists and turns remains to be seen.
In fact, some netizens have carefully read Atul’s final letter and believe that Atul may have had serious misogynistic tendencies. For example, he mentioned the following in his letter:
“Some men rightly handle (their wife’s) issues.” He then provided a link.
What was the so-called “rightful” handling? It was an example of a man brutally killing his girlfriend and cutting her into 59 pieces…
(Atul’s linked article was actually about a murder case)
Additionally, he used phrases like:
“In the future, marriage will be viewed as a scam. Wives will be seen as very expensive prostitutes, and for an alienated father, children will become the worst burden and parasites.”
(Hints of Atul’s bias in his own words)
While this might be slightly taken out of context, it indeed shows that Atul may have harbored biases.
But even so, if Atul did have many biases, it’s unlikely that the entire 24-page letter was fabricated.
Whether this case will lead to further developments and whether there will be more reversals remains to be seen… Also Read>>>>
