Gurgaon woman jumped off cruise liner,says family

Victim Neha Chhikara has not been recovered yet,and her family in Sector-17 here is now bracing for the worst.

Neha Chhikara’s husband Ankit Dalal works as manager on the same ship: ‘Royal Caribbean Cruise’,a luxury liner that was on a seven-day trip from Miami to the Bahamas at the time.

Dalal is son of Chief Medical Officer of Gurgaon Civil Hospital S S Dalal.

Neha’s brother Anuj Chhikara today claimed the Dalal family harassed her for dowry,leading to Thursday’s incident. Chhikara has filed a dowry complaint with Gurgaon police.

He claimed Ankit Dalal reported about the incident almost nine hours after Neha allegedly jumped off the 12th floor of the cruise liner at 12.15 pm (Bahamas time). The ship,he said,was near the Caribbean island at the time.

The couple had got married on August 5,2008.

Chhikara claimed he got an e-mail from his sister hours before she allegedly jumped off. Showing an e-mail that purportedly landed in his mailbox at 1.24 pm (IST) on December 31,he claimed her husband and in-laws harassed and even manhandled her on occasions for dowry.

The e-mail from Chhikara’s sister reads: “Ankit has been beating me up every day… I have lost the strength to live and am very depressed. I do not think he wants me to work on this ship. He has threatened me that he would get my appointment cancelled… I am under extreme torture…”

Chhikara,an advocate based in Gurgaon,said Neha worked as an airhostess with a private airline before marriage.

After Dalal left to take up his job on the cruise liner,Neha got 12-month visa and went to stay with Ankit two months after their marriage,Chhikara said. “But she returned barely a month later,badly bruised.”

The Dalals were not available for comment. Gurgaon Police Commissioner S S Deswal said,“We have received a complaint from the family but are investigating the matter since the incident has been reported elsewhere.”