A farmer was arrested along with his son and brother by the Chelur police for allegedly killing his 17-year-old daughter over suspected honour killing. The accused had disposed of the body by burning it on their farmland in their village, under Chelur police station limits in Tumakuru on June 9, said the police.
The incident came to light when police patrolling in the area came to know about the mysterious death of a girl, and probed the matter before alerting the higher-ups. Based on the suo motu case taken up, the police arrested the accused charging them with murder and destruction of evidence.
The victim, Nethravathy, is the only daughter of Parashuram among three children. Parashuram, belonging to a Schedule Tribe (ST) community, was a local leader having a hold in the community.
According to the police, Nethravathy, who was in PU at Sira Government College, was in a relationship with Kumar, who belongs to the Schedule Caste (SC) community. The family came to know about the relationship and stopped her studies and got her engaged on May 28 to another man. Not willing to get married, Nethravathy went missing two days later.
Furious over this, the family members started searching for Nethravathy and managed to trace her on June 8 and brought her home. The accused were agitated for bringing disrepute to the family and tortured her before force-feeding her pesticide to make it look like suicide. When she resisted and refused to consume the pesticide, Parashuram with his son and brother strangulated Nethravathy to death, and later cremated the body in their field to hush up the murder, said the police.
The police also found the role of the deceased’s grandmother Lakshmamma for abetting the murder, but due to the age factor and lack of evidence, she was not arrested, the police added.
“It is a very unfortunate incident that caste system is so deep rooted and leading to such incidents,” a police officer said .
