Dolly Berry, alias Pearl Nitin Mirchandani, a 23-year-old Nagpur girl, is currently battling between life and death at New Era Hospital, Wardhaman Nagar, where shes been lying in a vegetative state for a month. According to Dollys elder sister Deepika Berry, Dolly tried to commit suicide last month at her father’s residence at Ganeshpeth as she was extremely unhappy in her married life due to domestic violence meted out to her by her husband Nitin Mirchandani.

Dolly married Nitin Mirchandani, a resident of Khamla, on December 13, 2015. Since then, their marriage has been on the rocks. Nitin was engaged in betting, where he had lost a lot of money, because of which he was demanding dowry from Dolly. He was also into an extra marital affair. Nitin concealed that he was a divorcee when he got married to Dolly, which my family got to know after four-five months of their marriage. Nitin physically abused her, spat on her face and even threw ice-cold water on her. She even suffered a miscarriage after being kicked by Nitin. We tried to give him a second chance but he never changed. My sister was so depressed that eventually she tried to end her life, Deepika told us.

When Nation Next spoke with Nitin, he had a different story to tell. Aashna (Dollys changed name after her marriage) was very happy with me and my mother as we tried to make her feel special in every possible way. Her sister Deepika is defaming me on Facebook with false accusations. I had told them about my divorce before my marriage to Dolly. The truth is that her father was against her love marriage with me. So much so that he would even beat her up at times. He even tried to strangulate her in front of me and my brother-in-law; we had to intervene to save her. I feel my wife is in this state only because of her father as she was staying with them during the time of the incident? said Nitin.

Shivaji Gaikwad, Senior Police Inspector, Pratap Nagar police station, told Nation Next that an FIR has been registered by the police on August 24, under section 498A of IPC against Nitin Mirchandani. As Dolly is in an unconscious state, our investigation is still incomplete. Statements of her father and mother have been recorded, said Gaikwad when we asked him why the police have not yet pressed the charges of abetment to suicide against Nitin, as alleged by Dollys family.

Dr Nilesh Agrawal, Neurosurgeon, New Era Hospital, told us that Dollys in a state of semi coma. Shes critical and we can’t say if and when she would recover, said Dr Agrawal. When we asked him whether it was a case of attempt to suicide or there could be a possibility of Dollys father having harmed her, as alleged by her husband, Dr Agrawal said, Going by the history of the case, there were no signs of external trauma being afflicted on her, so there’s a possibility of she trying to commit suicide.