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Picture credit: Punit Lal

Agra: Russian daughter-in-law on hunger strike outside in-laws' house

AGRA: A Russian bahu along with her Indian husband are sitting on indefinite hunger strike along with their three-year-old daughter at the door-step of their in-laws' home against the dowry demand of several lakh raised by the mother-in-law.The woman, who is a housewife, lives in New Agra area. The couple have been married since 2011. While the husband has a restaurant and interior decoration business in Goa, the Russian national is a philosophy graduate from a Chinese university.According to victim Olga Efimenkova, who speaks fluent Hindi, said, “My mother-in-law Nirmala Chandel mentally tortures me for being a foreigner and pressures me for dowry. She has kicked me out of the home along with my daughter Dasaha and husband Vikrant Singh Chandel.”“I will continue to protest until my mother-in-law gives a place to stay in the house along with husband and daughter. Otherwise, I will seek help from Russian embassy to intervene, as local police is not helping us,” she asserted.Backing his wife, Vikrant Chandel claimed that his mother often physically assaults Efimenkova and keeps asking for dowry. “She has given my share of property to my elder sister Soumya Pal who lives in New Delhi. My mother now runs an illegal private school on my property and has kicked out my family. I visit Agra thrice a month while my wife and daughter live in Agra,” he said.“Now my mother has asked for Rs.10 lakh from my wife, but she doesn’t have it. I went to New Agra police station along with my wife, but they are not helping. I have been out here since 20 days and now I don’t even have any money left,” he said.However, Efimenkova’s mother-in-law Nirmala Chandel has maintained that she herself is living in a single room and had gifted the house to her daughter. She has also alleged that her son and daughter-in-law often indulge in gambling and do not care about her well being. On anonymity, a senior police official said, “It’s a family dispute over property. We are trying to resolve the matter.”Meanwhile, Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj also appealed to UP CM Akhilesh Yadav to help her, in her tweet.