In an alleged case of honour killing, a 19-year-old girl was strangled to death by her father in Jalgaon's Pathari village, as she wanted to marry outside her caste.
Police said Manisha Dhangar was killed by her father Yuvraj, aided by her uncle Rama and grandmother Sonabai. All three have been arrested.
The incident comes two months after Asha Shinde, 25, was killed by her father as she wanted to marry outside her community in Satara.
Manisha, who is a tribal, wanted to marry Sandeep Patil, a Maratha youth. Facing opposition from the family, they had planned to elope, but in vain, the police said.
“We received an anonymous letter and a phone call on April 4, saying Manisha is missing and that the Dhangar family might have something to do with it. We found out that on the same day the body of a girl was found on the railway track. On further inquiry, we found out that the family had not registered a missing person complaint. Finally, they confessed to the crime,” Pradeep Thakur, API, MIDC police station, Jalgaon, told The Hindu over telephone.
“When we first asked them why they hadn't filed a missing person complaint, they said they were busy looking for her. That was suspicious, and so we investigated further,” Mr. Thakur said.
It was later found that on the night of March 11, there was a brawl between Manisha's lover Sandeep and her family. “Yuvraj had threatened to harm Sandeep. He felt that if his daughter married him, his prestige in the community would be dented. So the next night, he took the extreme step,” Mr. Thakur said.
“He first strangled her and then all the three of them conspired to dump the body on the track,” the police official said.
It was now revealed that the body that was found on March 13 on the track, 5 km from Manisha's house, was in fact hers.
Meanwhile, speaking to a regional TV channel, Manisha's mother claimed that she was not aware that the family had killed her daughter. “They did not tell me anything,” she stated.
Sandeep claimed that Manisha's family was opposed to the match. “On March 11, Manisha's father called me to his house. I told him that I wanted to marry his daughter. He was opposed to it. He hit me on the head, I even got stitches,” he told reporters.
All the three were arrested and produced in the Jalgaon district court on Monday. While Yuvraj and Rama have been remanded in police custody till April 12, Sonabai was sent to magisterial custody for 14 days.
