Two Brothers In UP Set Sister On Fire Over Her Inter-Faith Relationship

Two brothers, in their early 20s, were arrested in Hardoi district on Tuesday for allegedly killing their 18-year-old sister because they were opposed to her relationship with a youth from another community, the police said.

The accused, identified as Durgesh Saini and Ravi Saini, first attacked their sister, Sangeeta Saini, with a blunt object. When she lost consciousness, they set her on fire.

Her partially burnt body was discovered on the roadside in the Atrauli area on May 30.

After a two-week investigation, Hardoi police uncovered the plot and arrested the brothers.

Police have also recovered the car used in the crime.

Hardoi Superintendent of Police (SP), K.C. Goswami, said on Wednesday that after examining footage from around 125 CCTV cameras over 250 hours and gathering information from informants in 129 villages, the police finally zeroed in on the suspects.

"On the evening of May 30, the young woman's partially burnt body was discovered near Pawayan in the Atrauli police station area. The nearby vegetation was also burnt due to the fire. Locals informed the police about the body," said the officer.

A police team arrived at the scene and identified the body as that of 18-year-old Sangeeta.

"We then deployed several teams, which revealed that Sangeeta had a close relationship with a youth from a different faith, with whom she had gone to Mumbai on May 15. Her brothers and parents were against it," the officer added.

"We spotted the two brothers in a van in a CCTV camera footage on the same stretch on the fateful day, and later they were interrogated," the SP said.

Both the accused confessed to having murdered their sister by placing her body in a sack on the roadside and setting it on fire.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)