UP: Woman killed for refusing to marry dowry death suspect, dad and stepmom arrested

LUCKNOW: A 20-year-old BA student was killed allegedly by her father and stepmother in UP’s Gonda after she refused to marry a dowry-death case suspect, leading to the arrests of the undergraduate’s parents.
Shweta Shukla was found lifeless in a pool of blood at home in Tulsiram Purwa village on Monday, with police revealing that her stepmother Rani grabbed her legs while she was asleep while father Rajesh slit her throat with a knife.
“The stepmother sent her (own) son and daughter away, leaving Shweta alone at home. Later, on Monday night, the couple killed her,” Gonda SP Vineet Jaiswal said.
To evade suspicion, Rajesh initially lodged a police complaint implicating his nephews in the crime. As the investigations began, Shweta’s maternal uncle Brijbihari Pandey filed a counter-complaint against Rajesh and Kiran claiming the duo were pressuring the student to marry Shivam, the dowry death case suspect. Pandey alleged the couple had received money for finalising the match.
Quizzed separately, Rajesh and Rani initially offered contradictory accounts, leading to further interrogation in which the two finally confessed, police said.
Police said Rani is the third wife of Rajesh, who owns over 10 bighas of agricultural land. His first wife had left him. Then, Shweta’s mother died under mysterious circumstances in 2004. He married Rani a year later.