Police on Tuesday arrested a 32-year-old man from Inaruwa Municipality in Sunsari district on charge of murdering his wife.

According to the District Police Office in Sunsari, Nagendra Bhagat of ward 3 of Inaruwawa was taken into custody for his alleged involvement in murdering his 23-year-old wife Nikita Chaudhary on Saturday. Police claimed the accused murdered his wife for not bringing enough cash and valuables as dowry.

The arrest was made after the victim’s family filed a police complaint accusing Bhagat of committing the heinous crime, said Superintendent of Police Bipin Regmi, also head of Sunsari police office. “Investigation is underway. The post-mortem report will confirm the cause of the death,” said Regmi.

The post-mortem was conducted at Biratnagar-based Koshi Hospital. The report is yet to come.

The couple was married 21 months ago and has an 11-month-old son. The accused had received Rs3.2 million in cash, seven tolas gold, 90 tolas of silver, and a motorbike in dowry.

On Saturday, Nikita, during a video call, had informed her mother of her arguments with Bhagat over not being able to bring more dowry. Nikita had also told the latter that she would visit them on Sunday.

“Nagendra had been nagging Nikita for dowry even when we were on the call. He had threatened her of ‘erasing her name’ if she didn’t do as he said,” said Sarita Chaudhary, the victim’s mother.

One-and-a-half hours later, Bhagat’s relatives called Nikita’s family to inform them of her death. While some claimed that she had died by suicide, others said she had slipped in the bathroom, Sarita added.

Relatives of the accused had rushed Nikita to the Inaruwa Hospital on Saturday evening for treatment. The victim had sustained deep cuts to her head, face and neck, and was bleeding profusely.

The victim was then taken to the Birat Medical College Teaching Hospital as per the referral of the Inaruwa-based medical institute. She was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the Biratnagar-based hospital.

According to Bishnu Chaudhary, the victim’s father, the accused had been mentally and physically abusing the victim, demanding the latter bring more dowry, ever since their marriage.

Of late, Bhagat had been demanding Rs1 million saying he wanted to buy Mahindra Scorpio. The victim had told Bhagat that her parents would not be able to afford such a huge amount.

Before marriage, Nagendra had claimed to be an engineer at the Nepal Electricity Authority’s Inaruwa branch and that he was a permanent employee. It was later revealed that the accused was an electrical lineman, working on a contract basis for the authority. The couple had been going back and forth after the accused lost his job as his contract expired.

“We had not even imagined that the arguments would take such a dark turn,” said Nikita’s younger brother Rahul, demanding a fair investigation into the case.