May 3: The puzzling death of Business Standard journalist Nirupama Pathak at her home in Jharkhand’s Koderma district, first reported to be a suicide, is now believed to be a case of honour killing that was triggered by opposition from the Delhi-based journalist’s well-educated family to her inter-caste love affair and pregnancy before marriage.
Pathak’s parents and two brothers were on Monday taken into custody for interrogation after the autopsy report contradicted all the differing reasons for her death they had cited before the police since she died on April 29. Meanwhile, her mother has been sent to 14-day judicial custody. Pathak, 23, the family’s only daughter, was killed in the morning, according to the autopsy report, but her family informed the police in the evening. Her parents first said she was electrocuted and then insisted that she committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan in her bedroom.
The suicide theory parroted by Pathak’s family after they produced a supposed suicide note has come into dispute because it was written both in Hindi and English and because it was believed to have been written hours after her death, the police sources said. A handwriting examination is yet to be conducted to ascertain if the note was written by the journalist herself.
Koderma SP G. Kranti Singh said: “It so far appears to be a case of honour killing. The autopsy report has cleared much of the initial confusion created by the dead girl’s parents. We have arrested her mother, Sudha Devi, and interrogating the victim’s father and brothers. Our investigations are still on”. Pathak, who was 12-weeks pregnant, is a brahmin and angered her parents and brothers when she declared her indissoluble love for her former college mate and fellow journalist, Priyabhanshu Ranjan, who is kayastha by caste and a resident of Darbhanga in neighbouring Bihar. Pathak’s father reportedly despised the kayasthas as the lowest among the upper castes. The autopsy report said Pathak’s death was caused by “asphyxia as a result of smothering”. Sources close to the doctors in the autopsy team told this newspaper that the doctors believed she was smothered to death by pressing a pillow. The ligature mark around her neck mentioned in the autopsy report was because as she was hanged with a rope after first killed by smothering, they said.