CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the police to seize 100 sovereigns of gold jewellery and a Volvo car allegedly given as dowry to newly-wed woman A Rithanya of Tiruppur, who died by suicide in June 2025, and hand them over to her father, Annadurai Ramasamy.
Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan observed that dowry received before, during or after marriage should be handed over to the parents of the deceased woman if she has no children.
According to the petition, newly-wed woman A Rithanya from Avinashi in Tiruppur district died by suicide in June 2025 due to alleged dowry harassment.
Her father, Annadurai Ramasamy, approached the Madras High Court seeking the appointment of an officer not below the rank of Superintendent of Police as the new investigating officer.
He alleged that the Deputy Superintendent of Police had failed to summon the accused family members to record their statements and had not collected relevant evidence, including witnesses’ mobile phones and CCTV footage from the accused’s house.
He further alleged that the police had not seized the gold jewellery and car or produced them before the Judicial Magistrate, Avinashi. He claimed that the investigation was not conducted fairly and effectively due to the influence of political and communal persons and was prejudiced and suspicious.
The Court observed that whatever dowry was received before, during or after the marriage shall be transferred to the parents of the deceased if there are no children.
In the present case, the deceased had no children through Rithanya’s husband. Therefore, the entire dowry, comprising 100 sovereigns of gold and a Volvo car given as dowry to Rithanya’s husband, ought to have been recovered by the Inspector of Police.
Accordingly, the Inspector of Police was directed to seize the 100 sovereigns of gold jewellery given as dowry and the Volvo car registered in the name of the deceased and hand them over to the petitioner in accordance with law.
The petitioner was also permitted to mark the hard disk containing the CCTV footage along with the audio during the trial before the trial court.
With these directions, both the Criminal Original Petitions were disposed of.