‘Forcibly’ separated from her live-in partner, teenager dies two days before habeas corpus hearing; Gujarat Police begins probe

A few days later, on June 12, three policemen and a relative of the woman tracked them down to a hotel in neighbouring Rajasthan. While the woman was handed over to her uncle, Haresh was arrested in an old case pertaining to the Prohibition Act.

A few days later, when he walked out of jail, Haresh’s first instinct was to go looking for Chandrika — both belonged to Tharad taluka in Banaskantha.

When she was nowhere to be found, he filed a habeas corpus petition in the Gujarat High Court seeking that the girl be produced before the court. However, on June 25, just two days before the matter was set for hearing, Haresh learnt that Chandrika had died on the same day.

Gujarat Police have now begun an investigation into the death.

“The (deceased’s) family members claim that when they woke up in the morning, they found the young woman dead, that it (the death) was of natural causes and that several family members and villagers were present during her last rites,” said Banaskantha Superintendent of Police (SP) Akshayraj Makwana, who has ordered an inquiry into the death of the teenager. The complaint in this regard was filed by Haresh expressing the suspicion that the teenager’s family may have killed her as they were opposed to their relationship.

Earlier, on June 26, Haresh even sent an application to the CM, the Home Minister, DGP, State Human Rights Commission and Gujarat State Commission for Women. A junior officer had inquired into the matter. Since the result was not satisfactory to the complainant, the inquiry was handed over to a senior officer of Banaskantha Police on July 31, said SP Makwana.

The inquiry, headed by Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Suman Nala of Danta division of Banaskantha Police, however, has major challenges before it. The most immediate among these is that there appears to be no immediate method to find out whether the woman had died of natural causes or not. This is because the woman’s family allegedly cremated her without informing the police.

ASP Nala, who began her inquiry into the case on Friday, spoke to the immediate family members of the deceased. The inquiry team was working on the case when last reports came in.

In his complaint, Haresh also blamed Tharad police for the death claiming they had taken away the woman forcibly and handed her over to her kin.

According to Haresh, he and Chandrika had signed a “formal agreement of live-in relationship” in Ahmedabad, after which they travelled to Madhya Pradesh and then to Rajasthan.

Following his arrest in the Prohibition Act case, Haresh said Chandrika was brought to Tharad police station where she refused to go to her parents’ place. According to Haresh, the police coerced her into going home by threatening to frame her partner in false cases.

After coming out of jail, Haresh learnt that Chandrika had messaged him twice on June 17 using Instagram, expressing fear of being killed by her kin or being married off to someone else.

He couldn’t read the messages immediately after they were sent as he was in jail at the time, Haresh said.

When his habeas corpus petition in the Gujarat HC came up for hearing on June 27, the court was informed that the woman had died. Following this, the bench of Justice Vaibhavi Nanavati disposed of the plea after taking on record the girl’s death certificate.

With more than a month having passed since Chandrika’s death and cremation, SP Makwana acknowledged that the police could not see any immediate way to verify the cause of the death of the woman.

“The family has said that she died of natural causes, possibly a heart attack. Had the police been informed at that point, we would have registered an Accidental Death (AD) report and investigated the matter,” he said. However, the ASP and her team would use all avenues to investigate the matter, said SP Makwana.

(With PTI Inputs)