Lalitpur:
A heart-wrenching incident has come to light from Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Here is a sad ending to a love story. On New Year’s Eve, a 22-year-old youth, Mithun Kushwaha, and a 19-year-old girl, Kamini Sahu, were brutally murdered by their own family members. An attempt was also made to make this heinous crime look like suicide. Taking immediate action, the police have arrested the girl’s father, mother and uncle and investigation into the case is ongoing.

This horrifying incident happened in Jakhaura Bigha village of Lalitpur. According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Muhammad Mushtaq, Kamini’s family was strictly against her and Mithun’s love affair. Due to disagreement between the two families, a Panchayat was held earlier, in which Mithun was ordered to stay away from the village until Kamini’s marriage. Mithun started living with his uncle outside the village. But he often went to Kamini’s house late at night to meet her.

Kamini’s family was aware of Mithun’s frequent comings and goings. He also knew that he would come to celebrate Kamini’s birthday at midnight on 1 January. SP Mushtaq told that as soon as Mithun reached Kamini at midnight, the family members caught him and tied his hands. After this they poisoned him and strangled him to death. When Kamini protested and threatened to lodge a police report, her family members strangled her after giving her poison.

To mislead the police, the family members hung Mithun’s body from a tree, so that it looked like suicide. They threw Kamini’s body behind the house. On the morning of January 1, the family members pretended to be missing and along with the villagers started searching for Kamini. When the villagers saw both the dead bodies, sensation spread in the entire village.

The police initially considered it a case of suicide and sent the bodies for post-mortem. After the post mortem report confirmed murder by strangulation, the police changed the direction of their investigation. Police exposed this murder case and arrested Kamini’s father Sunil Sahu, mother Ramdevi Sahu and uncle Deshraj Sahu.

(With inputs from Brajesh Panth)