AGRA: Over a month after 30-year-old IT professional Manav Sharma died by suicide in Agra, leaving behind a note to say he was harassed and that it’s not always men who are at fault for crumbling marriages, a police team from UP tracked and arrested his 28-year-old wife and father-in-law in late Friday night in Ahmedabad. They were earlier charged with abetment in Manav’s suicide.
DCP (city) Sonam Kumar said, “After a non-bailable warrant was issued and a bounty of ₹10,000 declared on each, our surveillance and special operations teams tracked Nikita Sharma and her father Nripendra Sharma’s movement through technical inputs. They were finally arrested from the house of one of Nripendra friends.”
Agra police are also preparing to serve notice to the individual who sheltered the accused. “We suspect they kept shifting locations to avoid arrest,” said the DCP.
Manav, who was a manager with an IT major in Mumbai, married Nikita on Jan 30 last year. The couple’s marital bliss was short-lived, as disputes soon arose. His father Narendra Sharma, a retired Air Force officer, in his police complaint, alleged that soon after the wedding, Nikita expressed a desire to live with her boyfriend and threatened Manav with false accusations.
On Feb 23 this year, the couple had returned to Agra from Mumbai. After Manav dropped Nikita at her parental home, he was allegedly threatened by her family. The following morning, Manav was found dead at his residence in Agra.
Before his death, he recorded a seven-minute video accusing his wife of many wrongs, and apologising to his parents. In the emotional video, he said, “Please, someone should talk about men. They become very lonely.” The video, which surfaced shortly after his death, sparked outrage nation wide. Manav’s father then filed an FIR against Nikita, who also worked at an IT firm, and her family under BNS section 108 (abetment of suicide).
Nikita has refuted the allegations, claiming that Manav struggled with alcohol addiction and had previously attempted self-harm. Her family had moved the Allahabad high court to quash the FIR, but the court refused to intervene, paving the way for their arrest.
The case has drawn parallels to the suicide of Bengaluru techie Atul Subhash, who also allegedly faced marital harassment.
