For a month after he found his wife hanging from the bedroom ceiling fan, Madan, 32, desperately tried, and failed, to understand what pushed her to the drastic step. Until, one day, he spotted her phone and found a video she had made in her final moments. She narrated how their neighbour had made her life a living hell after forcing himself on her, and later blackmailing her for money.

The woman detailed how he had forced himself upon her in July, and then began blackmailing her for money, threatening he would leak obscene pictures of her. He demanded Rs 30,000 from her, but she did not have the money to pay him, nor could she muster the courage to confide in her husband. Madan had moved to Taloja from Gujarat with his newlywed wife four years ago. He set up a grocery store in the same neighbourhood, and his wife, 26, would visit him every afternoon and evening with his lunch and tea.