3 days ago
Banaskantha ‘honour killing': Victim had told parents she left home because they were against her further studies, say police
New revelations in the alleged honour killing of 18-year-old Chandrika Chaudhary suggest her family opposed her further education, contributing to her decision to elope with her live-in partner, Haresh Chaudhary — both belonged to Tharad taluka in Gujarat's Banaskantha and were from the same Chaudhary-Patel community. The investigation has implicated Chandrika's father, her uncle, and the father's cousin in her murder. According to police, Chandrika had remained in touch with her parents after leaving home and cited her family's disapproval of her pursuing further studies as a reason for her departure.
As per the investigations, it was on June 25, two days before the Gujarat High Court was scheduled to hear a habeas corpus petition filed by Haresh Chaudhary over her disappearance, that she was found dead. Her body was discovered hanging in the courtyard of her parent's home in Dantiya village, staged to appear like a suicide case.
Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Suman Nala of Danta Division told The Indian Express, 'Chandrika had taken the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in May. Her parents had subsequently taken her back home from the Palanpur hostel. After she left her house with Haresh, she was tracked by the Tharad Police and returned to her family on June 12. She was at her home when the NEET results were declared on June 14 and she had scored well. She wanted to study further but her parents, it primarily appears, did not agree with her.'
Chandrika belonged to the Chaudhary- Patel community, who are traditionally agrarian.
The officer said that Chandrika possibly wanted to study further to be a doctor or nurse.
Notably, the FIR filed on August 6, based on the complaint filed by Haresh Chaudhary, who was already married and had a son, stated, 'I had taken Chandrika for her NEET exam and then dropped her back near her hostel. On May 4, Chandrika's cousins, Suresh and Haresh, took her to a relative's wedding where she stayed for up to a week after which she went to her village.'
The FIR stated, 'Chandrika kept telling her parents that she wanted to study nursing and take other exams but her parents refused her requests. However, later her father (Sendha Darga Patel) took her to a nursing college in Palanpur but since they didn't have all the documents, the admission process did not go through and they returned to the village.'
'After Sendha informed his brother Jayram that the admission did not go through, Jayram told him that Chandrika was of marriageable age, that there was no need to educate her further, and advised him to take away her phone and make her perform household chores. Chandrika then called and told me that her parents had refused to let her study further and that she was afraid that they would come to know about their affair and kill her. She asked me to elope with her,' the FIR quoted Haresh as saying.
On June 4, Haresh and Chandrika eloped. The duo signed a contract of live-in relationship at the Mirzapur court in Ahmedabad on June 5. They then travelled to Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
On June 12, the Tharad Police along with Chandrika's cousin Hira took both of them from a resort in Rajasthan to Tharad Police station in Banaskantha.
The NEET results were declared on June 14, two days after Chandrika had been handed over to her parents, while Haresh was arrested, first in an assault case and then in a Prohibition case. He was released on bail on June 21.
Meanwhile, ASP Nala said, 'We have seen messages sent by Chandrika to her parents after leaving with Haresh, telling them that she wished to study further and that she had to run away because they would not allow her to do so.'
According to the FIR, Haresh, after being released from prison, came to know about the messages from Chandrika, on his phone, allegedly pleading with him 'to save her because her family wanted to marry her off and if she didn't agree, they would kill her'.
On June 23, Haresh's lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition in the Gujarat High Court, leading to an order asking Tharad Police to present her in court on June 27. However, Haresh said that on June 25, he learnt that Chandrika had died. He then wrote an application to the police seeking an inquiry into her death.
When the petition came up for hearing on June 27, the HC was informed that the girl for whom the petition was filed, had died. Following this, the bench of Justice Vaibhavi Nanavati disposed of the plea after taking on record the girl's death certificate. However, the inquiry into the suspicious death and hurried cremation, found that she had allegedly been drugged with sleeping pills by her uncle Shivram and then murdered by strangulation, before being hung in the courtyard.
While the original FIR on August 6 named only Chandrika's father Sendha Darga Patel and his brother Shivram Darga Patel for the alleged murder, the police later, on August 11, also arrested Sendha's cousin Naran Sava Patel in the case.
Even as Chandrika's father Sendha Darga Patel continues to evade the police, The Indian Express has now learnt that Chandrika's entire family has also abandoned their house in Danitya village.
