CHENNAI: The anti-dowry cell of the Chennai police secured a conviction in a case against a man and his parents based on a complaint from a woman with Chennai roots but a New Zealand citizen. The three of them were sentenced to three years and fined Rs 10 lakhs.

The complainant whose family is from Urapakkam had acquainted with her estranged husband, S Vimaleshwaran through an online matrimony service in 2008. Vimaleshwaran was working as a professor at a university in London at that time. During the wedding, the woman's family gave 70 sovereigns of gold jewellery to the bride and also some jewels to the groom, and Rs 1 lakh in cash as a gift.

Despite this, the man's family had pestered the complainant demanding more dowry after the wedding. In 2011, the husband issued a divorce notice to the woman after the birth of their girl child, following which she filed a complaint with Chennai police.

The anti-dowry cell of city police registered a case and a chargesheet was filed before the Metropolitan magistrate courts, Saidapet. On Monday, at the end of the trial, the court found Vimaleshwaran and his septuagenarian parents guilty of the charges against them.

All three of them were sentenced to three years of imprisonment and slapped with a total fine of Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the complainant.