New Delhi, April 30 (IANS) A day after her first wedding anniversary, a 24-year-old woman was Wednesday found hanging at her home in northwest Delhi, with her parents alleging that she had been murdered by her husband and in-laws over dowry demands. As a mob of 250 surrounded the house refusing to let the police bring down the body of Astha Jain, demanding that her husband and in-laws be first arrested, the police said they had found a suicide note in which the woman blamed her in-laws for her death.

Astha Jain married Amit Jain, whose family runs a steel manufacturing factory in Rajasthan, April 29 last year. Her body discovered hanging from the ceiling of her bedroom at her Pitampura house in the afternoon.

On hearing about her death, the victim’s father, Ashok Jain, an affluent paper merchant in the Indian capital, and nearly 250 relatives and friends gathered outside the house and stopped the police from removing the body.

“We will not let the police take her body till they arrest Amit Jain, his father Ram Prasad and his mother Aasha on charge of murder. They have murdered my daughter for dowry and hanged her from the ceiling,” thundered a furious Ashok Jain.

“Astha’s in-laws were dowry greedy. Their lust for money killed my daughter. Since her marriage they have been demanding cash and a car. We had given them a Mercedes car and huge amounts money,” he said.

“On Holi day they made more demands. and now on her first marriage anniversary Tuesday, they had again harassed her for more dowry. Astha’s brother-in-law had also left his wife for dowry,” he said.

A suicide letter recovered from the scene read: “I am committing suicide as my in-laws have been harrassing me for … dowry.”

A large number of policemen at the site appeared helpless in front of the angry crowd. A police officer admitted the body had not been taken, even hours later, for post-mortem.

“We want her body for post-mortem. We have detained her in-laws. They will be arrested only after primary investigations. A case has been registered at the Shalimar Bagh police station,” said a senior official.