Madurai police have arrested a couple for allegedly murdering their 16-year-old daughter in Thirumangalam, apparently to save the family’s honour.

The death of the teenager G Analakshmi which happened on October 7 was portrayed as suicide, reported The New Indian Express.

It was said that failing to bear severe stomach pain, with the situation got worse due to frustration because of her failure in the Class X supplementary exam.

The parents gave this reason of their daughter ending her life. However, the autopsy report told another story as it prompted the police to investigate the case from a different angle.

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The strangulation marks on her neck found during a postmortem helped the police crack the case. After the postmortem, the police intensified their inquiry and found that the parents were guilty. A senior police official said that according to her parents, the girl brought disrespect to the family, therefore, killed her.

After recovering her body, it was sent for autopsy to the Thirumangalam Government Hospital. The doctors suspected foul play. The strangulation marks had been different than those that become evident post-suicide.

She wrote her Class X supplementary exams, in which she failed. The arrested were R Gnanavel (50) and his wife Sithalakshmi (48) of East Street at Kilavaneri in Thirumangalam. The victim is the fourth daughter of the couple. Two of the daughters have been married off while another committed suicide.

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Their report alerted the police, who began to interrogate the girl’s parents. The couple broke down during interrogation and confessed to their crime. During interrogation, the couple said that they took the extreme step because of their daughter’s wayward lifestyle, especially her having multiple boyfriends. They even suspected that she had established a physical relationship with many boys, including a Dalit. They had repeatedly asked her to get rid of her boyfriends, to which she refused. They also said there was an altercation between them that night.

The girl’s attitude and the public humiliation they had to face because of her had infuriated the parents and they decided to eliminate her. Apprehending police arrest after they had strangulated their daughter, the couple decided to cook up the suicide story and hung her body in the house. Following the confession of the parents, the police altered the case from 174 CrPC to IPC 302 and arrested the couple.