Protesters block national highway in Punjab over dowry death

Batala: Locals along with family members of a woman, who died allegedly in a dowry case, on Tuesday blocked a national highway for more than four hours protesting against the laxity of local police in the matter.

A large number of residents of Khabbey Rajputan here along with family members of the deceased held a sit in at Gandhi Chowk here, blocking the Amritsar-Pathankot national highway, police said. Gurdev Singh, a resident of village Khabbey Rajputan under Mehta police station, in his complaint, said her daughter Kawaljeet Kaur was married to Avtar Singh of Batala around five years back, adding "her in-laws used to put pressure on her for bringing more dowry." "Yesterday evening, we got information that my daughter was lying unconscious at her in-laws house. Subsequently, I, along with other family members rushed to the spot and found Kawaljeet lying on the floor. We took her to civil hospital, where the doctors declared her as brought dead," he said. He said they approached the local police with a complaint against Avtar Singh and his family members but the SHO, City police station, Lakhwinder Singh allegedly did not pay heed. After intervention of DSP(City) Ravinderpal Singh Dhillon in the matter, who assured the protesters that a case will be registered against all the family members of Avtar Singh including him, the protesters lifted the sit in, police said.