The Hindu : Front Page : Wife pays the price for forced marriage

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Saturday, Nov 15, 2008
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Wife pays the price for forced marriage

Staff Reporter

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Lakshmi, a software engineer who was murdered in Bangalore on November 7.

BANGALORE: Software engineer S. Manoj Kumar was forced by his family into an arranged marriage although he was involved with someone else. Three months into the marriage, his bride, Lakshmi, also a software engineer, had to pay the ultimate price. She was beaten to death. And the suspected killer: her husband. The two were working in the same company.

On Thursday, the HAL Airport police took Manoj Kumar into custody as they found inconsistencies in his version of events. The police said he broke down during interrogation and confessed to the murder. On November 7, Kumar, a resident of Vinayak Nagar near HAL Airport, lodged a complaint with the police that when he came home from work he found his wife Lakshmi murdered and that jewellery estimated at Rs. 30,000 was missing. The police initially suspected murder for gain.

During routine questioning of Kumar’s colleagues, the police came upon leading facts. Kumar had apparently reached office at 9 a.m. that morning, gone home in the afternoon and not returned to work. “We found this suspicious,” city Police Commissioner Shankar M. Bidari told presspersons here.

According to the police, Kumar confessed to a relationship with a resident of C.V. Raman Nagar, which he continued even after marriage, and that he had married Lakshmi on being pressured by his family because his girlfriend was of a different caste.

On November 7, according to his confession, Kumar threw chilli powder on Lakshmi’s face. When she turned around to wash it, he put on his gloves and bludgeoned her on the back of the head with an iron rod. “Manoj Kumar removed her gold chain, bracelets and earrings and hid them along with the iron rod and gloves in Ejipura,” Mr. Bidari said. The police have recovered the gold ornaments and the iron rod.

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