The sordid saga that began with a couple’s elopement, which drove the girl’s parents to end their lives in a suicide pact over the weekend, ended on Monday, with the police arresting Sridhar, with whom the girl had eloped, on the charge of abetting the suicides.
The case so far
M. Rashmi (22) had eloped with Sridhar (30) — a realtor from a different caste, who was a tenant at her parent’s house in Peenya for the past two years — on Friday, her birthday. Ms. Rashmi’s parents, Manichandra (48) and Sujatha (42), went to Gollahalli near Nelamangala and consumed poison in a suicide pact. Though they were rushed to hospital, Sujatha died on Saturday morning and Manichandra died on Sunday. When Rashmi and her husband turned up for her father’s funeral on Monday, dramatic scenes ensued.
Blamed by family
Ironically, Ms. Rashmi and Sridhar were brought, with full police protection, to the electric crematorium, in Chamarajapet.
Ms. Rashmi had to face a barrage of abuses from her extended family, who accused her of killing her parents. The couple left the crematorium in police vehicles after a distraught Rashmi performed some rituals.
This was followed by further vilification of Rashmi on several electronic media channels, where her extended family members blamed her for her parents’ deaths.
However, the couple’s ordeal was not yet over. Sridhar’s arrest in the evening came as the biggest blow to them.
Acting on a complaint lodged by Ms. Rashmi’s grandmother alleging that Sridhar abetted Manichandra and Sujatha’s suicide, Doddabelavangala police arrested Sridhar in the evening.
‘No duress’
Meanwhile, following a missing and abduction complaint against Sridhar, lodged in Peenya Police Station in the city on Friday, by Ms. Rashmi’s relative, the couple was produced before the Bengaluru Urban North tahsildar.
The Peenya police said that Ms. Rashmi stood by her husband and in her statement to the tahsildar, made it clear that she went with Sridhar of her own volition and married him, under no duress. Ms. Rashmi refused to speak to the media throughout the day.
Sridhar was produced at the house of a jurisdictional magistrate on Monday night and was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days till May 30.
Timeline
Friday morning: Rashmi elopes with Sridhar. Sridhar calls up Rashmi’s parents to inform them about their marriage. Rashmi relatives file a missing and abduction complaint against Sridhar
Friday evening:
Rashmi’s parents found unconscious on the road in Gollahalli. The couple had consumed poison in a suicide pact
Saturday morning:
Sujatha dies
Sunday evening:
Manichandra also succumbs
Monday afternoon:
Rashmi and Sridhar turn up at Manichandra’s funeral. Sridhar is arrested by Doddabelavangala police on the charge of abetting the suicides
