Background : Even in the presence of stringent laws dowry-related violence, cruelty and dowry death is common in India. Understanding the cause and the manner of suspected dowry death is essential not only to bring the culprits to book but also to prevent these offences.
Objectives: This study attempts to elucidate the cause and manner of suspected dowry deaths.
Patients and methods: This is an Observational Descriptive Epidemiological study, Cross Sectional in design. This study was conducted at an autopsy centre of Kolkata, India for a period of one year. Data was obtained from reports of postmortem examinations, police and the magistrate inquest of suspected dowry deaths as reported in the institute. Compilation of the data was done in Microsoft Excel. Analysis of the compiled data was done by simple table.
Results: The study reveals 35% of the deceased died due to burns, 31% by poisoning and 25% by hanging. Suicide is the manner of death among 69% of the deceased and in 31% it is accident. No case of homicide was reported. Among the suicides, 46% are committed by consuming poisons, 36% by hanging and 18% by burns, while 70% of accidents are due to burns.
Conclusion: The study reveals that commonest cause of suspected dowry death is burns followed by poisoning. Suicide is the manner of death in 2/3 of the study population and in 1/3 it is accident. There is no homicidal death in the study population.