Ex-husband, 3 others held for abetting Surat woman’s suicide

Surat: Umra police booked four people from Ahmedabad in connection with the suicide of a 26-year-old Surat woman, Poonam Tayde, and her four-year-old son, Shivay. Tayde died by suicide after strangling her son at her parent's house in the Piplod area on Feb 13. After the suicide, a couple of diaries and a suicide note were found in the house, in which she alleged torture by her former husband and the prime accused, Karan Shah, along with his mother, Kailash Shah, sister, Hiral Shah, and his friend, Umang Mistry. Umra police detained all four after booking them for abetment to suicide.
Police also invoked the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as she was subjected to casteist slurs by the accused.Karan Shah lived in the Shahpur area of Ahmedabad. Tayde and Shah married on May 3, 2021, after meeting through a marriage bureau. On Feb 3, 2022, she gave birth to her son, Shivay. However, Shah and his family members allegedly tortured her and abused her with casteist slurs, as she was from an SC community. After many attempts to reach a compromise, they got a divorce with mutual consent on Aug 14, 2025. However, after the marriage, Shah regularly met his son, Shivay, on various occasions. His friend, Umang Mistry, also spoke to the victim sometimes. During these meetings, the accused told her they would take her son with them. Fearing they would ruin her son's life with similar torture to what she faced, she allegedly strangled her son at her parents' home on Feb 13 and hanged herself. After her death, Tayde's brother filed a complaint with Umra police, and all four accused were detained for further investigation.