UP: Gurugram MNC employee killed by father, brother over live-in relationship
The deceased, Saraswati Maliyan, 23, was strangled and later set on fire by her father and brother.
The Muzaffarnagar police have arrested the father and brother of a female executive working with an e-commerce firm for killing her over a live-in relationship with a man, police said.
The deceased, Saraswati Maliyan, 23, was strangled and later set on fire by her father and brother, Times of India reported. Both accused – Rajveer Singh, 55, and Sumit Singh, 24 – confessed to the murder, police said.
“Rajveer admitted to killing his daughter out of anger over her relationship. The third accused, Gurdayal Singh, is absconding, and we are conducting raids to arrest him,” Muzaffarnagar SSP Sanjay Kumar Verma told Times of India.
Saraswati was working with an e-commerce MNC in Gurgaon, where she handled orders and last-mile delivery. She was in a live-in relationship with Amit, a resident of her village. Her father and brother, in their confession, said that they were opposed to the relationship.
Saraswati's charred body was found by the police on June 3 in a jungle in the Katia village, which is under the limits of Muzaffarnagar's Kakrauli police station.
A case has been filed under Sections 103 (murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false evidence to screen offender) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Family filed missing report to mislead police
The murder took place on the night of May 29-30, with Rajveer and Sumit strangling Saraswati inside their home, an officer investigating the case told the Times of India.
The third accused, Gurdayal Singh, who is also Sumit's friend, helped them in carrying the body to a forest, 5 km from the house. The trio then poured petrol over her body and set it ablaze, the officer said.
A missing person's report was filed by the family a couple of days later to mislead the police. Saraswati's body was found on June 3 and sent for a post-mortem.
“Once we sent her body for the postmortem, we tried to identify her. The body was completely burned. A silver bracelet on her hand was our only clue. We first took a close photo of it (bracelet) and then started looking for missing women around the village,” Joginder Singh, Station House Officer, Kakrouli, told The Indian Express.
He said that during inquiries in the village, the police learned that a woman named Saraswati was missing. When the police searched on Instagram, they were able to match the bracelet on her wrist with the one in the pictures.
Victim was forced into marriage in 2019
Police said that Saraswati was forced into a marriage in 2019, but left her husband and returned home after two years, Times of India reported.
Another marriage was arranged by her family in 2022, but she returned home after a year, the police said. “She later began living with a man called Amit in Gurgaon, where both started working with the same e-commerce firm that same year,” police said, adding that Saraswati had continued the relationship despite opposition from her family.
The police further said that Saraswati had returned to her village in Muzaffarnagar on May 10 to persuade her family. During questioning about their last conversation, Amit told police that it took place on May 26, wherein she said that this would be her last attempt at convincing her family.
