‘Honour Killing’: Father, 3 kin held for beating 19-year-old to death, faking snakebite, suicide

Lucknow: In a suspected honour killing in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi district, a 19-year-old woman was allegedly beaten to death by her father, two uncles and an aunt, who later tried to pass off the murder as a case of snakebite and suicide before secretly cremating the body, police said.

The incident took place in Samadkhera village under Sandila police station limits.

As per the complaint filed by the victim’s mother, Shubhi, 19, left home around midnight on June 3 and returned at 4 am on June 4, when her father, Ramdayal, 52, spotted her entering the house.

Police said Ramdayal began questioning her, triggering a commotion that drew his brothers, Munesh and Suresh, and Munesh’s wife, Madhuri.

Investigators allege the four assaulted the teenager, kicking and punching her repeatedly until she died.

To conceal the crime, the family allegedly fabricated evidence. Police said needle marks were inflicted on the victim’s hand to mimic snakebite punctures, while ligature marks were created around her neck to suggest suicide. The accused then took the body to a nearby orchard and cremated it the next morning without informing authorities or conducting a post-mortem.

Suspicion grew after villagers learnt of the hurried cremation, prompting a tip-off to police on June 6. Acting on the information, officers detained Ramdayal. Subsequently, Shubhi’s mother, Mithilesha, 47, along with her younger daughter, approached police and narrated the sequence of events.

Police registered a case and arrested all four accused, said aditional superintendent of police Subodh Gautam.

Police have invoked sections related to murder and destruction of evidence. Shubhi, who had studied up to Class VIII, belonged to a labourer’s family.