A 19-year-old woman was killed allegedly by her father and cousins in Karnataka’s Ramanagara
district for being in a relationship with a man from another caste, the police said on Friday, reported The Indian Express. The police have arrested all the three accused.
The accused have been identified as Krishnappa, the woman’s father and a farmer by profession, and his nephews Chetan alias Yogi and a 17-year-old boy, according to The Times of India. They are residents of Bettahalli village, about 55 km from Bengaluru. The police said that they found Krishnappa’s behaviour suspicious and picked him up for questioning. “He confessed to the crime and said two nephews helped him kill the woman,” a police officer said.
The case was originally registered as a missing woman complaint but later turned into a caste killing case, the police said.
The 19-year-old woman, who was a college student, belonged to the upper caste Vokkaliga community and was in a relationship with Puneeth, a Dalit man, the police said.
On October 9, the woman’s father filed a complaint that his daughter was missing, the police said, adding that the woman’s body was the next day found in a farm belonging to his brother. Police added that the family did not grieve when the woman’s last rites were performed.
“The trio had planned the murder well to confuse the police,” Inspector General of Police (Central Range) Seemant Kumar Singh. “On October 8, all three of them killed her and buried her body in the farm.”
The woman’s family has claimed that Puneeth and his friends gangraped and killed her. Ramaganagra Superintendent of Police Girish said they had formed a 21-member police team to investigate the case.
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