Cops probe honour killing in Delhi journalist's death
Manoj Prasad Posted online: Monday , May 03, 2010 at 0858 hrs
Ranchi/New Delhi : She was a 22-year-old journalist working with the
Business Standard in Delhi. He was her batchmate from the Capital's
prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication, working in another
media establishment in the city. Their love story had little in common
with others they must have come across in their jobs recently. But, it
may have ended the same way.
On April 29, Nirupama Pathak was found dead at her home in Koderma,
Jharkhand. Her family said she had been found "hanging". The police
believe it may have been honour killing.
Nirupama, who did a one-year Post Graduate Diploma in Radio and TV
Journalism from IIMC, was a Brahmin. The man she was planning to
marry, her batchmate Priyabhanshu Ranjan, is a Kayastha from Darbhanga
in Bihar.
"We have gathered evidence showing she was suffocated to death with a
pillow pressed over her face. We hope to resolve this murder case
soon," Koderma Superintendent of Police Kranthi Kumar said.
Ranjan, who last talked to Nirupama on April 28, told The Indian
Express her parents had told him she had been electrocuted. However, a
post-mortem report (a copy of which has been obtained by The Indian
Express) mentions a "ligature mark on the neck".
The report also shows that Nirupama was three-month pregnant at the
time, adding to suspicions of honour killing.
"She called me on April 28. She told me she would not be calling me
again. She was crying a lot and said that there was pressure from her
mother and brother's friends. By that time, I too had begun crying.
Then abruptly, she cut the call, saying her mother had entered the
room. She never called me again," says Ranjan.
"Her father once told her that I was the lowest of the upper castes," he adds.
They had been planning to get married in March, says a mutual friend.
"They even paid some money to a pandit to conduct the ceremony. At the
eleventh hour, her parents intervened, and said they would need some
time to come to terms with the alliance." So, they waited.
Around mid-April, Nirupama's father Dharmendra Pathak called her up,
saying her mother had fractured her backbone. She left Delhi on April
19.
"She was supposed to return on April 29," says Ranjan. "I was not in
touch with her from April 20 to 27. After she called me on April 28,
Nirupama called my roommate, asking him to take care of me. She never
attended the phone after that."
The friend says Nirupama also messaged Ranjan, worried he might do
something rash. "Once she told him they had locked her up."
Nirupama's mother Sudha has told the police her daughter hanged
herself from the ceiling fan and that she had discovered the body. She
also handed over a piece of paper claiming it was a "suicide note" by
her. "Nobody should be held responsible. I must be cremated in Gaya,"
the note reads.
Sudha has also told the police that only the two of them were in the
house at the time, with her father Dharmendra as well as her two
brothers who work outside Jharkhand away. But the police dispute this.
"She was brilliant enough to secure a job in the print medium despite
being a student of Radio and TV journalism. She did that in her first
campus placement interview itself," recalls a mutual friend of
Nirupama and Ranjan.
Ranjan, who did his PG Diploma in Hindi Journalism from IIMC, met
Nirupama on their first day at IIMC. "We met and talked for the first
time on June 29, 2008, during the IIMC interview," he recalls.
A distraught Ranjan says Nirupama's parents are not illiterate people
who are conservative. "Her father is a manager in a national bank. She
was the youngest of three children — the eldest is an Income Tax
inspector and the second is doing his Ph.D in Biotechnology."
However, they had made it clear that they wanted Nirupama to break off
her alliance with Ranjan. He remembers that after the Supreme Court
reduced the death sentence of one man who was convicted of murdering
his sister's husband and two family members, Nirupama's eldest brother
had messaged her. "He asked whether she wanted a repeat of the
incident," he says.
In an interview to BBC Radio, Dharmendra Pathak has claimed he did not
know of his daughter's pregnancy. "In Indian culture, fathers don't
ask daughters these things," he said.
"I knew there was a wedding proposal from another caste but nothing
had been finalised. I asked her to concentrate on her career," he said
when asked about his knowledge of the affair. He added that he did not
know when Nirupama was planning to return to Delhi.
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