It is heartbreaking how some women suffer the abuse in silence and find themselves so helpless that they find no hope in living their life. Today, we are mourning the death of one such person, Harsha Patel.
39-year-old Harsha Patel, who married Dr. Hitendra Patel in August 2020, found herself being the victim of constant harassment after marriage. Unable to handle sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, she gave up on her life and died of suicide.
What happened?
As per the sources, police filed a complaint of abetment to suicide against Dr. Hitendra Patel, an orthopaedist from Ghatlodia, for allegedly driving his wife to suicide by deviant sexual behavior and harassment ever since they got married.
Police further shared that the victim had written her last statement on her right thigh before poisoning herself outside her husband’s house at Devkutir Bungalows in Ghatlodia on Tuesday. Later police found an 18-page long suicide note from her house.
In the suicide note, Harsha accused Hitendra of forcibly having sex with her every day and subjecting her to unnatural sex.
While sharing the details, she mentioned in her suicide note:
“As Hitendra is a doctor, he gave me sedatives every day due to which I would be half-conscious and he would forcibly have sex and unnatural sex with me,”
Additionally, in her suicide note she also accused her husband’s parents and sister of demanding 250g of gold as dowry. She mentioned how they tormented her for not bringing enough money from her parents’ place.
In the filed FIR, Harsha’s father stated that she and Hitendra were both separated from their respective partners. It was the couple’s second marriage. The couple got in touch through a matrimonial website and decided to marry. But, soon after the marriage, the trauma started for Harsha. Hitendra and his family started harassing and abusing her over trivial matters.
In her suicide note, she mentioned how her mother-in-law and father-in-law harassed her. And, when, once, she went to her husband’s clinic to inform him about the same, he thrashed her brutally.
In December, few months after the marriage, Harsha was deserted by Hitendra. After which, she was staying with her father, Nanji Patel. But on Tuesday, she went to her husband’s house where she committed suicide. Her father learned from an unknown person that her daughter had poisoned himself. She was taken to Civil Hospital but was declared brought dead.
After inquiring into the case, the local police booked Dr. Hitendra, his father, mother, and sister, for abetment to suicide, unnatural sex, and forcibly administering drugs to Harsha.
As we mourn Harsha’s death, we wonder how many women chose to suffer abuse in silence for the sake of marriage. We wish Harsha could have reached out to someone to seek support rather than giving up on her life.
In order to support the victim of abuse, we have compiled a small resource that covers mental, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Additionally, it also contains the helpline numbers for the ones who are looking for support. Let’s support each other so we won’t lose any more Harsha at the hands of abusive and greedy monsters!