 "Atul Subhash, an automobile company executive, was found hanging in his apartment on Monday. Image Courtesy: X")
The tragic suicide case of a 34-year-old Bengaluru techie has shocked the country.
Atul Subhash , an automobile company executive, was found hanging in his apartment on Monday.
Before taking his life, he penned a 24-page suicide note, which contained serious allegations of explicit instigation for suicide, harassment, extortion, and corruption against his estranged wife, Nikita Singhania, her family and a family court judge.
Here are the horrific details revealed by the victim.
A troubled marriage
Subhash, who hailed from Uttar Pradesh, detailed several criminal charges, including a domestic violence complaint, that were brought against him by his wife and other people.
In the about 90-minute video, which took over the internet, Subhash said he married Nikita Singhania after finding her on a matchmaking website. The couple had a son the following year.
He alleged that his wife’s family would repeatedly demand lakhs of rupees, and when he refused to give, his wife left Bengaluru home with their son in 2021.
In the 24-page death note, Subhash advised his four-year-old son not to trust the “shameless system that can make a child a burden and liability to his father.”
Subhash revealed that his wife did not let him meet his son since they separated.
His brother also stated in the complaint that the deceased’s wife had demanded Rs 30 lakh from Subhash to let him meet their son.
Framed in false cases
Subhash said, “My wife has registered nine cases against me. Six cases are in the lower court and three in the high court,” adding that one of the cases, filed in 2022 against him, his parents, and his brother, include charges such as murder, dowry harassment, and unnatural sex, among others. However, his wife later withdrew the case.
She alleged that he demanded a dowry of Rs 10 lakh and this put pressure on her father and he died of a heart attack.
In another case, Subhash asserted that his wife acknowledged on cross-examination that the murder charges she had previously brought, claiming that her father’s death was caused by Subhash’s desire for a sizable sum of money, were false.
She explained that her father had a lengthy battle with diabetes and other chronic illnesses before passing away in 2019.
Crores of settlement money
“When I entered the court, my wife was already present. They asked me to settle the court cases,” he claimed, further alleging that his wife had previously demanded Rs 1 crore and later increased the demand to Rs 3 crore.
According to Subhash’s lawyer, Dinesh Mishra, who spoke with CNN-News18, the deceased never told him about the settlement. Mishra said, “Amount settled for child’s maintenance, which was Rs 40,000, as per the court’s order. Atul never told us anything or met us.”
A copy of the court’s order accessed by CNN-News18 shows that the court had rejected his wife’s request for her maintenance.
His wife allegedly ignored his concerns when he told the judge at a family court in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, that she had made false accusations against him and his family, stating, “So what? She is your wife, and this is common.”
When Subhash stated in court that thousands of individuals commit suicide as a result of false allegations made against him, his wife allegedly responded, “Why do not you do the same?” and the judge replied with a laugh.
He claimed that to resolve the matter, the judge demanded a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from him.
“Now with me gone, there will not be any money to loot and I hope that they might start to look at the fact of the cases,” Subhash wrote in his suicide note.
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40 times from Bengaluru to Jaunpur
The victim’s father said, “He (victim) had said to us that those in the mediation court do not work as per law, not even as per the rules of the Supreme Court. He had to go to Jaunpur from Bengaluru at least 40 times. She (the deceased’s wife) used to frame one charge after another.”
“He must have been frustrated but never let us feel that. Suddenly, we received the information about the incident – he sent a mail to our younger son around 1 am. It’s 100 per cent true (the allegations of the deceased against his wife and her family). We cannot express the level of tension that our son would have been in,” he said.
FIR filed
The incident came to attention after Subhash emailed an NGO late on Sunday night to advocate for men who are victims of domestic abuse and related problems. After he and his wife separated, he had been living alone and involved in a marital dispute.
Following the tip, police arrived at his apartment in Bengaluru’s Munnekolalu, Marathahalli, broke down the door and discovered him dead. The police found a “Justice is Due” A4 sheet placard on Atul’s chest.
Subhash’s brother, Bikas Kumar, has filed an FIR against four people—the techie’s wife Nikita Singhania, his mother-in-law Nisha Singhania, his wife’s brother Anurag Singhania and his wife’s uncle Sushil Singhania—at the Marathahalli police station in Bengaluru.
The complaint has been filed under Section 108 (abetment of suicide) and Section 3(5) (establishes joint criminal liability when two or more people act with a common intention) of the BNS. He has accused Subhash’s wife, her mother, brother, and uncle of filing false complaints and demanding Rs 3 crore for settlement.
Online users have come together to call for justice for Subhash and to pressure Accenture, where his wife works, to fire her.
Nikita Singhania’s family speaks up
As the case gathers more attention, Nikita Singhania’s family has spoken out. While they regret the death, they claim that they are not guilty. They told CNN-News18 that they had not done anything wrong.
“We are not guilty of what happened. We will come out with all the proof soon. We have done nothing wrong. We regret Atul’s death,” the family of Nikita Singhania said.
With inputs from agencies