In 1978 in India there was a rise in the reported cases of domestic violence and murder, some linked to dowry demands (Kishwar, 2003, 111). In 1979 there was a demonstration to protest police collaboration with the murderer's family by registering the death of a newly-wed woman as suicide. The protest received widespread media attention and many organizations who joined the protest were flooded with cases of married women seeking redress against violent and abusive husbands, and of parents whose daughters had been murdered by their in-laws. Even so, it was difficult for the various women's organizations to get any cooperation from the police or the courts. In cases where women had been murdered, police destroyed evidence and passed off the cases as suicides or accidents as a result of bribery. In the courts, it was difficult for the victims of abuse and torture to prove "beyond a doubt" that they were victims.
As a result of vigorous campaigning, and lobbying by women's organizations, significant changes were made in the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, and the Dowry Prohibition Act to try and protect wives from marital violence, abuse, and dowry extortion (Kishwar, 2003, 112). However, these laws were not implemented as had been hoped. The police continued to accept bribes from the wrongdoers, leaving the women still without protection. A survey of women who had been murdered or committed suicide in the Bangalore district showed that police and other law enforcement officials were deliberately avoiding the stringent laws against domestic abuse, and going out of their way to consider deaths suicides, even when the evidence clearly pointed to murder. Families had difficulty getting cases registered and investigated, and police collaborated with the murderers to produce false post-mortem and forensic reports, and destroy circumstantial evidence so the accused could be acquitted.
A study based on police record...