Slain Haryana singer Harshita Dahiya’s sister: My husband got her killed

Harshita Dahiya’s sister Lata at the government hospital in Panipat Wednesday. Express

A day after Haryana folk singer Harshita Dahiya was shot dead, her elder sister Lata on Wednesday told the police that her (Lata’s) husband was behind her murder since she was a witness to their mother’s killing. The singer was shot down on Tuesday while she was returning from a function in a village of Panipat district.

Panipat SP Rahul Sharma said they would interrogate Lata’s husband Dinesh (29), a known gangster. “Lata has blamed her husband for the murder. She told the police that currently Dinesh is lodged in Jhajjar jail, where he was recently shifted from Delhi’s Tihar jail. He is facing four murder cases, apart from many other cases including attempt to murder in Haryana and Delhi,” Sharma said. “We will seek production warrant of the suspect to take him in the police custody to interrogate him,” the SP said.

Dinesh had allegedly raped Harshita in early 2014 and later in the same year, he allegedly killed their mother. Dinesh is a resident of Delhi’s Karala village. The SP, however, said they were not ruling out other possibilities. In one of the video clippings uploaded on the YouTube, Harshita Dahiya had alleged that she had received threats from the local music industry.

According to Panipat DSP Desh Raj, doctors have confirmed eight bullet injuries to the deceased. “Only three bullets were found in her body. The rest passed through the body,” he said. Lata on Wednesday went to Panipat’s government hospital where the doctors conducted autopsy of her sister’s body after which the body was handed over to family members.

Harshita was shot while she was on her way back home in a car around 4 pm on Tuesday after a function at Chamrara village in Panipat district. According to sources, Harshita had supported movement of a farmers’ group and on its invitation, she had gone to the village. She recently posted a video on YouTube hinting at some suspects who she said were threatening her on phone.

“There are some people from the (music) industry, our own performers from Haryana, threatening me on the phone to compromise and delete the video or else I will have to face the consequences,” Dahiya said. Dahiya had also said she would lodge a (police) complaint against the person who threatened her.