MP High Court Closes Plea Seeking Probe Into Woman Advocate's Alleged Dowry Death, Directs Expeditious Consideration Of Father's Representation
The Madhya Pradesh High Court closed a plea seeking CBI probe into a lady advocate's alleged unnatural death post marriage, granting the petitioner father liberty to file a representation with the concerned authority to be decided expeditiously in four weeks. [2026 LiveLaw (MP) 279]
Noting the submissions of the petitioner to withdraw the plea with the liberty, the bench of Justice Himanshu Joshi directed:
"Counsel for the petitioner wants to withdraw this petition with a liberty to file a fresh and properly constituted representation to the concerned authority/respondent(s). This petition is dismissed as withdrawn with the aforesaid liberty. If such a representation is filed by the petitioner before the concerned authority/respondent(s) within a period of seven working days from today, the authority/respondent(s) shall consider and decide the same expeditiously, preferably within a period of four weeks from the date of filing/receipt of certified copy of this order after giving opportunity of hearing to both the parties".
The plea was filed in June 2026, claiming that the daughter had died in an unnatural manner within three months of marriage, allegedly due to dowry harassment. According to the father's petition, the deceased married on March 2, 2025, in Tamil Nadu, in accordance with Hindu customs and rites.
The petition stated that the husband's family made repeated dowry demands, which were allegedly fulfilled by the bride's family.
However, when he visited his daughter's matrimonial home, he was informed by his son-in-law that she had fallen in the bathroom around 9:30 pm while washing her face. However, the petitioner raised serious doubts over this version of events, alleging that despite being a doctor himself, his son-in-law did not immediately take her to a hospital.
The petitioner, suspecting multiple inconsistencies in the actions that followed the alleged accident, submitted a written complaint to the Jabalpur Station House Officer, but no effective action was taken. He also filed an RTI application seeking medical records from the hospital, which were allegedly rejected on the grounds that he was not the "next of kin" of the deceased.
Case Title: P Dakshinamurthy v State of Madhya Pradesh WP-21807-2026
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (MP) 279
For Petitioner: Advocates Dinesh Chand Sagar, Manish Kumar Verma, Sachin Kumar Verma, Surya Prakash Pathak, Vinod Sisodia and Nidhi Sonkar
For State: Government Advocate Priyanka Mishra
For CBI: Advocate Vikram Singh