A local court on Friday directed police to file a case of rape and abetment to suicide against the journalist-boyfriend of Delhi-based scribe Nirupama Pathak, an alleged victim of honour killing, following charges levelled by her arrested mother.
Taking cognisance of Subha Pathak’s petition, the Chief Judicial Magistrate N. K. Agarwal asked Tilaya police to file the FIR under IPC Sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 420 (cheating) against Priyabhanshu Ranjan. All the sections are non-bailable.
The court also allowed a petition of the police to take Subha in police remand for three days from judicial custody from May 9.
22-year-old Pathak, who was working for a business daily in Delhi, was found dead on April 29 in her parents’ house in Tilaya in Koderma district under mysterious circumstances.
Subha alleged that it was a case of suicide. However, the post-mortem report revealed that Pathak died due to asphyxia as a result of smothering. A 10 to 12 week-old foetus was also found during the autopsy.
Suspecting the death to be a case of honour killing, the police had arrested Subha.
Nirupama and Ranjan were planning to get married but her parents did not approve of the match because of his caste. They were batch mates from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi.