DEHRADUN: A case has been registered against a personal secretary at the Uttarakhand Secretariat and his family members for allegedly causing the dowry death of his 27-year-old wife, Shristi Bhandari, a government school teacher, in Dehradun's Doiwala area.Acting on a complaint filed by the victim's mother, Seema Bhandari, police on Thursday registered an FIR under Section 80(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with dowry death, against Shristi's husband, Saurabh Khatri, his mother Parvina Devi, sister Charu Khatri and other unidentified family members.According to the complaint, Shristi married Khatri in November last year and lived with his family in Doiwala, around 20 km from Dehradun.

Soon after the marriage, her husband and in-laws allegedly began subjecting her to physical and mental cruelty while demanding dowry.Circle Officer (Doiwala) Vandana Verma said the family regularly humiliated Shristi by calling her "inauspicious" and "unlucky"."They socially humiliated her, claiming that misfortunes began after her arrival. When her father-in-law passed away after a prolonged illness, the family blamed her for his death as well," CO Verma said.

The incident came to light after Seema Bhandari was unable to contact her daughter on July 28 and 29 and asked relatives living nearby to check on her. They found Shristi in a critical condition at a local hospital. By the time her mother reached Dehradun from Srinagar in Garhwal, Shristi had died during treatment.