This is a deeply weird idea to me, even given a knowledge of how dowries did/do work. And it's also delightfully complicated and a wonderful story of how laws designed to improve conditions can often have bizarre outcomes.
So as a background, typically a dowry payment is an amount of money, goods, or a combination of both that is given by the wife's family to the groom's family as part of wedding. This was pretty standard practice worldwide, but has been phased out, in part just as a matter of cultural realism and in part because it was having some really ugly effects.
In India, dowries, much like the caste system, hung around even though they were outlawed in 1961. Moreover, the content of dowries has adapted to the times, with grooms demanding modern appliances and things like motorcycles. Yeah, demanding.
That's weird, but the problem is that it's not enough that the bride's family gives the groom's family these items and cash at the time of the wedding. Frequently, the claim is that the amount is insufficient, or that additional payments must be made after the marriage. As the bride is the portal to her family, she is mistreated and abused, sometimes killed, when the groom doesn't get what he wants. It's really nasty and has led to a practice also common in near-neighbor China, female foeticide, the killing of female fetuses (and sometimes newborns). I don't even want to get into what a nightmare that is going to turn into - the consequences are just so wide-spread.
Interestingly, there is another side to this story. Men who take advantage of this situation, or whose rights are abused because of it.
Under the first scenario, men play into the traditional dowry system, take the gifts, and then take off, get a divorce in a foreign country and are "free." That, obviously, is unreasonable. As a result of this and the abuse and death suffered by women whose dowries were "insufficient," India passed laws to make such actions illegal. And here's where it gets interesting.
Imagine this scenario - you actually didn't harass your wife, but she and her family go ahead and claim you did. Imagine you've left the country b.c. you're estranged and looking for new opportunities. If you violate a country's law or really if there is a claim that you have (e.g., your wife has claimed you engaged in "dowry harassment"), the country can put in to Interpol for a "Red Corner Notice" - what this does is anytime you enter or exit an Interpol country and your passport info is run through the system, you're flagged and, normally, pulled aside. Evidently, this is not such an issue in the U.S., but a disaster if you enter India.
Obviously, I don't think that most of these people are innocent, but it is rather creepy, especially when you read about real-life experiences of people being extorted by government personnel on this basis. Particularly when there is a sliding scale for bribes so you can get your passport back and go on your way, based on your nationality.
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