"Bengaluru To Jaunpur 40 Times": Atul Subhash's Family On What He Suffered

The parents of 34-year-old Atul Subhash, who died by suicide alleging extortion and harassment by his estranged wife and her family, have said he was under severe stress and had to travel at least 40 times between Bengaluru and Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur for court dates.

"They tortured my son, they tortured us too. But my son took everything upon himself. He endured everything, he did not let us suffer. He kept burning inside," said Atul's mother, crushed by her son's death. His father said Atul had told them the family court did not follow the law. "He said the judge and others did not follow the law, did not even follow the guidelines of high courts and the Supreme Court. He must have travelled between Bengaluru and Jaunpur at least 40 times. So many charges, one case would finish and she (the wife) would slap another. He was frustrated, but he did not show it to us," he said.

Atul Subhash was found dead at his Bengaluru home on Monday morning. A 'justice is due' placard and a 24-page suicide note was found in his room. He has accused his estranged wife Nikita Singhania, mother-in-law Nisha Singhania, brother-in-law Anurag Singhania and his wife's uncle Sushil Singhania of instigating him to die by suicide. Based on his brother Bikas Kumar's complaint, a case of abetment to suicide has been registered against the four.

In an 81-minute video, Atul Subhash said he married in 2019 after finding Nikita on a matchmaking website. The couple had a son the next year. He has alleged that his wife's family would repeatedly demand money running into several lakhs. When he refused to give more money, his wife left the Bengaluru home with their son in 2021.

The next year, Atul wrote in the note, she filed a case against him and his family under multiple sections, including murder and unnatural sex. She alleged that he demanded dowry of Rs 10 lakh and this put pressure on her father and he died of a heart attack. "This is some poor bollywood plot. She has already confessed that her father was suffering from long term illness in her cross examination. Her father was getting treated from AIIMS for the last 10 years for heart disease, diabetes etc. Doctors gave him few months and hence we got married quickly," he has said. This case, he said, was subsequently withdrawn.

Atul has said that his wife and her family first demanded Rs 1 crore to settle the case, but later hiked this to Rs 3 crore. He has detailed a court exchange in which he said that when he told the judge that men are dying by suicide due to false cases, his wife replied, "Then why don't you?" At this, he said, the judge laughed and asked her to leave the room. Atul has also alleged that the judge said he "must think about his family" and demanded Rs 5 lakh to "settle the case".

Atul's brother Bikas Kumar told news agency ANI, "Around eight months after my brother's wife separated from him, she filed a divorce case and framed many charges against my brother and our entire family under different acts and sections. Every law in India is for women, and not for men - my brother fought for this but he left us."

"My brother did everything for her. Whatever has happened was unfortunate. If he had ever discussed it with me or our father, we would have helped him out of this situation... I want to request the government of India and the President that justice must be done to my brother if he is right. Otherwise, show me the proof that he is wrong. There should be a proper investigation against the judge named in my brother's suicide note," he said.

Atul's friend Jackson told ANI that he was under tremendous stress. "But in this particular video and the notes that he has made, it doesn't seem that he was depressed. It seems that he did it out of a sense of harassment that he was facing from the system. So it was more like his way of telling the system that it is not helping men and there is a lot of bias."

Raging against the law dealing with such cases, Atul wrote in his suicide note, "The more I work hard and become better at my work, the more I and my family will be harassed and extorted and the whole legal system will encourage and help my harassers... Now, with me gone, there won't be any money and there won't be any reason to harass my old parents and my brother. I may have destroyed my body but it has saved everything I believe in."

Jackson said the couple's relationship went downhill during the Covid pandemic. "During COVID, he was looking after his wife and son. His wife was also infected with COVID and she had a lot of issues. So he went ahead to procure medicines for her and she wasn't taking them on time. This created some friction that escalated into multiple issues and then she left him along with the baby and he could not see his son," he said.Bengaluru police have said that a police team would travel to Jaunpur to question Nikita and her family members. Earlier, when NDTV tried to reach them, the Singhania family refused to speak about the incident and said their lawyer would respond.