MADURAI: Though Rajesh and Nupur Talwar have been acquitted by the Allahabad High Court in the sensational Aarushi murder case, in a similar case, Madurai police arrested a couple for allegedly murdering their 16-year-old daughter in Thirumangalam, apparently to save the family’s honour.
Initially, the death of the girl on October 7 was portrayed as suicide. It was said that failing to bear severe stomach pain, with the situation further being complicated by her frustration because of her failure in the Class X supplementary exam, she ended her life. However, the twist in the tale came following the autopsy report that prompted the police to investigate the case from a different angle.
The strangulation marks on her neck found during a postmortem helped the police crack the case. After the postmortem, the police intensified their inquiry and found that the parents were guilty. A senior police official said that as the girl brought disrespect to the family they killed her. The deceased has been identified as G Analakshmi. She wrote her Class X supplementary exams, in which she failed. The arrested were R Gnanavel (50) and his wife Sithalakshmi (48) of East Street at Kilavaneri in Thirumangalam. The victim is the fourth daughter of the couple. Two of the daughters have been married off while another committed suicide.
A complaint was made by Gnanavel to Thirumangalam Taluk Police on October 8 that her daughter committed suicide, due to unbearable stomach pain and also because of the frustration she was suffering due to her failure in the exams.
After recovering her body, police sent it for autopsy to the Thirumangalam Government Hospital. The doctors found enough evidence that put the suicide theory to the test. The strangulation marks had been different than those that become evident post-suicide.
The doctors suspected foul play. Their report alerted the police, who began to interrogate the girl’s parents. The couple broke down during interrogation and confessed to their crime. During interrogation, the couple said that they took the extreme step because of their daughter’s wayward lifestyle, especially her having multiple boyfriends. They even suspected that she had established physical relationship with many boys, including a Dalit. They had repeatedly asked her to get rid of her boyfriends, to which she refused. To compound matters, her life became a topic of hot discussion among the villagers.
The parents further said that an altercation had broken out on the night of October 7 between.The girl’s attitude and the public humiliation they had to face because of her had infuriated the parents and they decided to eliminate her. Apprehending police arrest after they had strangulated their daughter, the couple decided to cook up the suicide story and hung her body in the house. Following the confession of the parents, the police altered the case from 174 CrPC to IPC 302 and arrested the couple.
She had multiple boyfriends, claim parents
During interrogation, the girl’s parents said they killed the girl because of her wayward lifestyle, especially her having multiple boyfriends, including a Dalit, which they disapproved