UP man kills teen daughter, pours toilet cleaner on face; cops suspect honour killing

LUCKNOW: In a suspected honour killing, a 16-year-old girl was allegedly strangled by her father with the help of an associate, and her body dumped on roadside in Barabanki.The accused, Vijay Kumar Chaubey, 34, a resident of Chinhat, and his aide Abdul Mannan, 45, were arrested from Gonda on Monday.Police said Chaubey was opposed to his daughter’s relationship with an older man. The girl had eloped with the same man in 2025 but was traced and brought back, but she remained in contact with him which angered Chaubey, police said.“Prima facie, it appears to be a case of honour killing,” said DCP East Deeksha Sharma.On April 13, the two accused took the girl in a hired car on the pretext of performing a ritual. The next day, near Baddupur in Barabanki, they strangled her in the car and tried to disfigure her face using a toilet cleaner, but it did not cause significant damage, police said.They dumped the body near Sharda Canal on Kursi Road. It was recovered by Barabanki police on April 15 but remained unidentified and was later cremated.To deflect suspicion, the father filed a missing complaint on April 16 and blamed the girl’s male friend. But when police questioned the male friend, he played the girl’s last recorded call to him in which she said that she was leaving with her father for a ritual. Local residents too confirmed that they had last seen the girl leaving with her father. Police again visited Chaubey’s house but he was found missing.Local inquiry revealed he had taken the girl with him. His phone was also switched off, which further strengthened suspicion,” said an official.Using surveillance, police traced him to his in-laws’ house in Gonda, where he was arrested.Using surveillance, police traced him to his in-laws’ house in Gonda, where he was arrested on Monday. His associate was subsequently apprehended.