In an alleged case of honour killing, a 21-year-old girl in west Delhi’s Dwarka was strangled by her parents. They were arrested on Tuesday.
The girl’s husband, an assistant programmer at Rashtrapati Bhavan, approached the police suspecting that she had been killed for marrying outside her caste.
The parents had allegedly strangled Bhawna Yadav at their home in Bharat Vihar, a rural colony in Dwarka, on Saturday night. They had then tried to pass off the death as one due to snake bite and even cremated her at their native village in Rajasthan’s Alwar district.
Faced with a strong resistance from the girl’s side of the family, Bhawna and Abhishek Seth, 24, had a quiet Arya Samaj wedding at a temple on November 12.
The couple then informed Bhawna’s parents Jagmohan Yadav and Savitri.
“Bhawna’s parents requested that she be sent back home so that they can organise a grand wedding. They said their reputation was at stake and they wanted to convey to society that it was an arranged marriage,” a police officer investigating the case told Deccan Herald.
Bhawna went back to her parents’ home on the same day of the wedding, only to return to Seth last Friday claiming that her parents thrashed her. Seth’s house was soon visited by Bhawna’s parents and some relatives.
“They again took her back on the pretext that they would send her back on Sunday after performing a ceremony. They promised they wouldn’t harm her,” said Seth.
He told this newspaper that he fell into their trap and allowed Bhawna to leave. Once she had left, her maternal uncle allegedly called Seth over phone and threatened to shoot them dead if they did not separate. The maternal uncle is currently absconding.
It was the next morning that Seth received a call from Bhawna’s cousin, one person from her family who supported the couple, that she had been killed.
Seth approached the police upon which investigations were started. A team was sent to Alwar to arrest the parents. The police said they have confessed to the murder. “They strangled the girl at 2 am on Sunday. They then called their relatives at their village in Alwar and said that she had been bitten by a snake and would be brought by car for treatment by a quack there,” said the officer.
Sometime later, they called their relatives again to inform that Bhawna had died on the way and they should quickly prepare for her cremation, the officer added.