Dishonour: Parents poison girl to death in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: In a shocking incident of honour killing, a 16-year-old girl was murdered by her parents after she eloped with a youngster belonging to a scheduled caste. The incident was reported in K.G. Hosahalli village in Ramanagar taluk of Ramanagar district in the early hours of Sunday.

The deceased has been identified as Ranjitha (right). The Ramanagar Rural police have arrested the girl’s parents – Govindaraju, 45, and Jayalakshmi, 37, who have been arrested for murdering Ranjitha by lacing her food with poison. The couple allegedly killed their daughter just hours after she was brought back by the police from Dharwad, where she had eloped with her boyfriend, Manjunath, who is also arrested under the Pocso Act for allegedly kidnapping the minor girl.

Ranjitha, who had studied till seventh standard, had dropped out of school. She was sent to her elder sister Manjula’s house in Sunkadakatte on Magadi Road in Bengaluru a few days ago. She was also working in a garment factory in the city. During her stay in the city, she came in contact with Manjunath, aged around 25, who lived next door. They reportedly fell in love with each other, and Manjula, who learnt about the affair, sent Ranjitha back to the village just a few days ago.    

“The girl, however, kept in touch with Manjunath over phone and he met her frequently near Revannasiddeshwara Hill near her village. During his last visit, Ranjitha had told him that her parents would not agree for their marriage as they belonged to different castes and because of their age difference. Subsequently, they decided to elope. On September 6 morning, the girl was not found and her father filed a missing complaint with the police, and the case was treated as kidnap as she was a minor,” the police said.

“Based on the information given by her parents and sister, we tried to trace Manjunath. We found that they had eloped to Dharwad, Manjunath’s hometown. They were traced in Dharwad on Friday and they were brought to Ramanagar on Saturday. Manjunath was arrested on charges of kidnapping a minor under the Pocso Act, and the girl was sent along with her parents by afternoon,” the police said.

Around 4 am on Sunday, Govindaraju and Jayalakshmi started screaming and villagers gathered around their house. The parents said that their daughter had consumed poison and had died. Govindaraju then rushed to the police station and reported that Ranjitha had committed suicide. But the police suspected foul play as they had sent the girl back home just a few hours ago.

“When he was interrogated thoroughly, he confessed that he and his wife added a pesticide to her food served for dinner and murdered her. She developed health complications in the early hours and died. Soon after Govindaraju confessed to the murder, he was arrested along with his wife. The girl’s body was sent for the postmortem,” the police said.

Horror trail
Nov. 2011: Suvarna, 22, was murdered by her immediate relatives as she had a relationship with a Dalit, who was also beaten up by her relatives. The incident that took place in Ambalavadi village near Maddur in Mandya district is said to be the first case of honour killing in Karnataka.

March 2012: Smruthi, 27, an assistant professor at a First Grade College in Chamarajanagar, was murdered by her brother Mahadeva alias Madhu in Alanahalli in Mysuru. The reason for the murder was that Smruthi had fallen in love with a Dalit, who was the Deputy Director of Physical Education at Tumkur University.

July 2015: Kasturi, 25, and Basavaraj, 28, from Koppal were murdered by the girl’s brother in their rented house in Hesaraghatta in the city after they got married against her parents’s wishes. The both belonged to different castes.