Girl, 16, left pregnant after being raped is strangled to death then beheaded by her father and older brother for ‘bringing shame’ on the family in India
- 16-year-old girl from northern India fell pregnant after being raped, police say
- She hid pregnancy from her family, who discovered it after bump began showing
- Police say the father then beat his daughter, before strangling her to death
- He also decapitated her body, before burying the headless corpse in a riverbed
A teenage girl left pregnant after being raped was strangled to death by her father who then mutilated her body in an honour killing in India.
The 16-year-old, who has not been named, is thought to have been killed on September 23 when she went missing from a village close to Shahjahanpur, in northern India.
Police believe the girl was beaten and strangled, before her dead body was decapitated and the headless corpse buried in a riverbed.
The case was only brought to light after the body was discovered on Tuesday, because her family did not report her as missing.
A 16-year-old girl who fell pregnant after being raped in northern India was then beaten and strangled to death by her father, who decapitated her corpse and buried the body (file image)
After discovering the body, detectives confronted the girl’s father who admitted to the crime. Her brother has also been arrested and charged over the murder.
Police told the Times of India that the girl, who stayed with a relative away from her parents’ house, had been raped and fallen pregnant several months ago.
The girl – who never went to school and was from the lowest Dalit class – hid the pregnancy, which was only discovered by her family after a bump began to show.
Police say the girl’s family beat her, ordering her to reveal the name of her attacker, but she refused. She was then killed, and her body mutilated.
‘The father has confessed to have killed his daughter because she was pregnant. People had started insulting him publicly,’ investigators said.
Detectives are also trying to track down the girl’s rapist.
The case comes amid outcry in Uttar Pradesh over another attack – a 19-year-old Dalit girl who was gang-raped and strangled by four upper-caste men.
It is thought the girl was killed on September 23, when she went missing from her village near the town of Shahjahanpur, but her family did not report this to police
The attack took place on September 19 in the Hathras district, and the girl was taken to hospital the same day.
She was later transferred to Delhi because of the severity of her injuries, but died two weeks later.
Police have arrested the accused men, who have been charged with murder.
More than 300 cases of honour killings were recorded in Indian between 2014 and 2016, the most recent years for which data is available.
However, campaigners warn the practice is likely far more common – and that many crimes go unreported.
India also does not have a separate offence for honour killings, meaning the crimes are difficult to identify from raw data.