A 16-year-old pregnant girl was allegedly killed by her father and elder brother in a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh for “bringing shame to the family”. Apparently, the Dalit (lowest caste in India's outlawed caste system) girl had been raped by an acquaintance and gotten pregnant.
The shocking incident came to light on Tuesday after the police found the mutilated body of the girl, buried in a riverbed, in the Shahjahanpur district of the state.
The police identified the girl and reached her family for further details.
According to an Indian news report, when the police asked them about the girl, the family initially said that she was living with a relative.
Later, the father of the girl confessed to the crime. A police official said: “The father has confessed to having killed his daughter because she was pregnant, and people had started insulting him publicly.”
Police found that the girl had remained silent about the alleged rape, till her baby bump betrayed her ordeal.
When the news of the unmarried girl’s pregnancy spread in the village, villagers started insulting her family members, who felt ashamed. The father and brother of the girl beat her up and strangled her to death. Her body was then decapitated and buried in a nearby riverbed.
The police said: “The girl’s elder brother is also involved in the murder, and we have booked both of them under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code. We have also questioned the mother and other relatives, but we didn’t find their involvement in the murder.”
According to the police, the minor girl didn’t reveal the name of the rapist to the family. Police are now trying to find the accused.
