A suspected honour killing has come to light in Mathura's Govind Nagar police station area, where a woman was allegedly killed by her family after an interfaith love marriage, and her body was buried.

Love marriage against the family's wishes

Nazia alias Jannat, a resident of Badrinagar Nai Basti in Mathura, fell in love with Ravindra, a resident of Pacheri Kalan village in Rajasthan's Jhunjhun district. Both worked in a factory in Delhi that makes sports clothes. They were in love for two years and wanted to marry. Ravindra's family agreed, but Nazia's family did not accept the relationship. When her family did not agree, Nazia left home about four months ago and married Ravindra. For three months, her family kept asking her to break the relationship, but she refused.

Brought to Mathura on a pretext

After that, her family pretended to accept the relationship. On September 25, Nazia's mother and aunt somehow talked her into coming to Mathura. After staying there for a few days, when Nazia said she wanted to go back, her family began opposing it. When there was no contact with Nazia for 15 days after she left, Ravindra called her family. At first they kept putting him off, and later they stopped taking his calls. Fearing something untoward, Ravindra filed a zero FIR in Jhunjhun about his wife's kidnapping. Rajasthan police registered the FIR and sent it to Mathura police for investigation.

Brother arrested after questioning

When the FIR reached Govind Nagar police in Mathura by mail on October 23, police began an investigation. On suspicion, police took Nazia's brother Akram into custody late on Saturday night. During questioning, he first kept saying she had died of electrocution, but on strict questioning, police said, he told them that Nazia had been strangled to death and her body buried in a graveyard.

Body exhumed, postmortem awaited

On Sunday, on the orders of City Magistrate Anupam Mishra, police exhumed Nazia's body from the graveyard and sent it for postmortem. Brother Akram has been arrested. Police are now awaiting the postmortem report. Her mother and aunt have been detained and are being questioned. SP City Rajeev Kumar Singh said evidence is being collected, Jhunjhun police has been informed, and it would be premature to say anything until the evidence is collected.