The photographs looked almost ordinary — a father and daughter standing together in the waters of the Chambal river near Basoni in Agra, around 220 km away from Delhi. They were anything but, Indian Express reported.
Police said the images were taken moments before the 18-year-old woman, a resident of Delhi, was allegedly drowned by her father and brother-in-law on July 30, allegedly driven by fears of the social stigma they would face when people came to know that the woman, unmarried, was pregnant.
They hoped the photographs would help pass off her death as suicide. Instead, the photographs led to their arrest on August 2.
While the body of the victim, who the police said was around four months pregnant, is yet to be recovered, divers continue the search in the river.
The incident came to light when a neighbour of the family, suspicious of the father’s account after he returned from Agra on July 31, made a PCR call, said DCP (South) Anant Mittal.
She was the middle child among three siblings. Police said her mother died of cancer eight years ago. She lived with her father, a confectioner, in a 25-gaj house in South Delhi. Her elder sister lived in the same locality with her husband, who worked at a local sweet shop.
Police said the father and the son-in-law took the woman to their village in Agra on July 28 on the pretext of her undergoing an abortion. They stayed at a relative’s house for two days before taking her to the Chambal river.
They first allegedly asked the woman to jump into the river. When she refused, they pushed her into the water and drowned her before returning to Delhi, police said.
A source in the police said that before forcing her into the river, the father allegedly touched his daughter’s feet. “The father then forcefully took her into the water and pushed her head under. After she drowned, he folded his hands and apologised for what he had done,” the source added.
Police said photographs recovered from the son-in-law’s phone show the father and daughter together in the water shortly before her death.
Mobile phone location data of the three also corroborated that the victim and both the accused travelled together to Agra, they added.
The case unravelled after a neighbour became suspicious of the father’s account on his return, police said.
“The father told the neighbours he had taken his daughter to Agra because she was suffering from depression. After returning, he claimed that she had died by suicide there and thus, he cremated her there,” said an officer.
Police said the father initially tried to mislead investigators before breaking down during questioning.
During the investigation, police found that the woman had befriended a boy, two years younger to her, through Instagram around eight months ago. The two later entered into a relationship and began meeting regularly. After she became pregnant, her father contacted the boy’s family in an attempt to persuade them to agree to their marriage. However, the efforts were unsuccessful. That was when he decided to murder his daughter.
Police said they have questioned the boy and his family, who live in the same area.
