Preeti was six months pregnant, said the police. Her brother Manoj Kumar, a resident of Jharoda Kalan, told Newsline he received a call from Bhargava, who told him that Preeti had committed suicide. “He asked me to come to their Vasant Kunj home and collect her body. But when my parents and I rushed to their house, we found it locked. On enquiring with the neighbours, we were told she was taken to a nearby private hospital,” Kumar said.

Police officers said she was declared brought dead at the private hospital and the MLC report stated: “Death due to unknown poisonous substances.” Her body was then transferred to Safdarjung Hospital for a postmortem and a report is awaited.

Kumar said when Preeti was married in January last year Rs two lakh were demanded as dowry. “My father is a DTC driver and I don’t have a well paying job. There were three other unmarried women in the family and we could not afford that huge an amount,” Kumar said.

Kumar added that Bhargava had a private job at the airport at the time but he left it after sometime. “He was jobless and was in desperate need of money to start a business. His dowry demands started getting persistent as he needed capital,” Kumar said.

Things became worse on January 13 earlier this year, when Bhargava beat up Preeti. The police said a case was registered against him in this regard and he was arrested. The matter was later resolved after the local panchayat interfered.