The family of Puneet Khurana, a bakery owner, who hanged himself at his home in north Delhi’s Model Town on Tuesday, alleged that the victim was mentally abused by his estranged wife and her family. They also said that the wife has been demanding money from him, which caused Khurana to take this extreme step.
According to Khurana’s family, “he was upset about his wife”, Manika Pahwa, whom he married in 2016. The couple owns For God’s Cake bakeries, as well as another restaurant called Woodbox Cafe, which has since closed. .
“Manika Pahwa, his parents and sister forced my brother, pressured him and instigated him saying, ‘you can’t do anything, die by suicide if you dare. There is a recorded video that was shot by him for about 59 minutes. In that video, Puneet talked about the details of the abuse he faced from his wife and they caught it,” said Khurana’s sister told ANI media on Wednesday.
“Manika’s family threatened to evict our parents from home and asked Puneet to reopen his shop. They continued to torture him and oppress him mentally,” she said.
When asked about the dispute over the bakery business between the estranged couple, the deceased’s sister said that when the divorce decree was signed, it was decided that her brother would manage For God’s bakery and his estranged wife would get Woodbox Cafe.
“They used to manage a bakery together before. But during the divorce proceedings, Pahwa kept calling him to demand his share. He kept saying that he would not leave his share. When the matter was decided by the court, you should have gone to talk about the matter instead of harassing my brother and hacked Puneet’s Instagram account, ” he says.
“He misbehaved with people on Puneet’s Instagram account. Because of this, my brother called him at 3 in the morning and they argued about the baking business on the phone,” he said.
On the other hand, Khurana’s distraught mother said that her son’s estranged wife has been abusing him mentally. He said his son has never shared anything with the family in the belief that he will be stressed and upset.
“I was hoping that my son and Manika would have a good life after they separated, she was broken inside. So much so that he was forced to take a difficult step yesterday, I lost my son and I want justice for him,” the victim’s mother told ANI.
DCP North West Delhi, Bhisham Singh, responded to the suicide case of a bakery owner in Delhi, saying, “The victim’s father said that his son had marital disputes, and he alleged that his daughter-in-law was abusing him because of that. He committed suicide.”
He said he hung himself with a cloth and his family took him down and kept his body on the bed. “An autopsy will be conducted and the report will come tomorrow. If there are problems, we will form a board and an autopsy will be conducted. We will take appropriate action after that,” said the police chief.
“They got married in 2016 and separated two years ago. The divorce is still going on. We asked the woman’s family and they answered that the couple talked on the phone and argued about the bakery business almost before the man died by suicide,” he said. said.
Singh said the woman sent an audio clip of Khurana talking about her abuse to her father-in-law and said it was nothing serious, except for an argument.
The incident is similar to the recent suicide of Atul Subhash, a 34-year-old professional from Uttar Pradesh, at his home in Bengaluru. In that case, Subhash made a video recording of about two hours, describing the abuse he faced from his estranged wife and her family and left a 24-page suicide note.
(with input from ANI)