A 20-year-old woman was allegedly killed by her father, uncle and three brothers in Gwalior for eloping with a man from a different caste, police said on Wednesday, adding that a case of murder has been registered.
According to the police, the body of the woman, identified as Rakhi Rathore, a resident of Janakganj, was recovered from her house on August 2. On Wednesday, her postmortem and forensic reports confirmed that the woman was strangulated to death, said Sanjeev Nayan Sharma, town inspector, Janakganj police station.
Police said they have arrested the woman’s father, Rajendra Rathore, and brother, Jitendra Rathore, under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) while her uncle, Radheshyam Rathore, and cousins, Manoj and Monu, are absconding.
Sharma said the woman eloped with a man from a different caste on June 5. After her family filed a missing complaint, police found her living at a Nari Niketan, a non-government shelter home for women, in Gwalior on July 7. “On July 31, the woman agreed to live with her parents in Janakganj area of Gwalior. But, on the very next night on August 1, they killed her and hanged her to a rod on the ceiling,” Sharma added.
Police said the woman’s father and brother have confessed to the crime. “They said they wanted to get her married to a man from their caste, but the woman was not ready. All the male members of the family then planned to kill her. They sent all other women and children in the family outside and strangulated her to death. They hanged her to a rod to show it as suicide,” said the police officer.
According to an official of the Nari Niketan, the woman made a video before returning to her house and suspected that she might be killed by her family.
Gwalior superintendent of police Amit Sanghi ordered an inquiry to find out why the woman was shifted to her house despite her fears that she could be killed. Further investigations are on, said the police.
(With inputs from Mahesh Shivhare from Gwalior)
