Punjab: Husband among 4 booked for killing 20-year-old woman

PATIALA: The police have booked four persons under sections of murder and causing the disappearance of evidence of offence after they allegedly killed a 20-year-old woman, wife of one of the accused.

The police said that it was an inter-caste marriage between the accused, identified as Lakhvir Singh, 21, of Gadhapur village in Patiala and the deceased woman identified as Nancy, 20 of Mohali. Both of them got married in July 2018 and the deceased was allegedly four months pregnant.

The police revealed that Lakhvir Singh, his sister Meenu and parents Baljit Singh and Javinder Kaur of Gadhapur village in Shambu block of Patiala district, had allegedly killed Nancy and cremated without informing the police or parents and relatives of Nancy.

Nancy’s family had told the police that they came to know about her only after her last rites were performed. The family added that their relatives living in the same village had informed them about the cremation of their daughter whereas the accused did not even let them know anything about it.

The younger sister of the deceased, who did not wish to be quoted, told TOI over the phone, “Nancy was committed to marry her lover Lakhvir Singh and both got married in July last year against the wishes of their respective parents. My parents had almost boycotted her but after a few months, my mother started brief communication with Nancy over phone calls but my father remained reluctant to speak to her. A day before Nancy was killed, she had called my father but he failed to answer the phone calls. She was depressed for the last three months as her in-laws were torturing her, both physically and mentally. She might have called again to tell that she was quite unhappy. Her husband, accused Lakhvir Singh, had also tortured her. Lakhvir worked as an employee in a factory and both fell in love a few years back when Nancy used to go to work at a boutique. Nancy’s mother-in-law also tortured her for not bringing any dowry as she was enticed away by Lakhvir Singh.”

She added, “We were shocked to hear this bad news that Nancy was no more and even we cannot see her dead body as her in-laws had cremated her.

Shambu, station house officer who is investigating the case, said, “We don’t know how the deceased had died but the accused had made attempt to conceal the cause of death by causing the disappearance of the evidence. The case under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing the disappearance of evidence) is registered against the accused and his three family members. The further investigation into the matter is on and more details would come out after the accused are arrested.”