A 20-year-old law student was allegedly killed by her family members in a suspected case of hate crime in Aligarh after she refused to end her friendship with a young man, police said on Saturday, adding that three of her family members were arrested and action was taken against a juvenile relative.
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Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, the Aligarh senior superintendent of police (SSP), said the case came to light after the victim’s friend, Harshit Varshney, resident of Darbar village under the Gonda police station limits of Aligarh, approached the police on Friday with a written complaint alleging that the family of woman, identified as Himanshi in the FIR, had killed her on Thursday (July 23).
Following the complaint, a case was registered at Aligarh’s Gonda police station under Sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(3) (aggravated criminal intimidation), 103(1) (murder), 238 (destruction of evidence) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita
“The police investigated the matter and found the allegations to be true and thus a case was registered at the Gonda police station and family members allegedly involved were arrested,” the SSP said.
Those arrested were identified as Ávdesh Kumar, the woman’s father, Anurag, a cousin, and Jitendra, an uncle, the Aligarh police said.
The complainant alleged that the accused cremated the woman’s body in haste to destroy evidence, the police said.
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Those arrested include the woman’s father, cousin and uncle, according to a statement by the Aligarh police.
Harshit, who runs a medicine shop in Gonda town of Aligarh district, knew Himanshi since school and claimed to be in a relationship with her, according to the police complaint.
The woman was assaulted by her family members on March 15 this year when she visited Harshit’s shop, the complaint added.
“Thereafter, the applicant informed the local police about the incident, after which the police brought the applicant, Himanshi, and her family members to Gonda police station. From there, Himanshi’s family members took her away in their custody after giving a written undertaking,” the complaint said.
The complaint did not say how she was killed.
