india

Updated: Jul 07, 2019 09:25 IST

The West Bengal Police on Saturday arrested a couple for allegedly killing their 16-year-old daughter and dumping her body in the Ganga river in Malda district simply because they could not agree to her relationship with a young man from a neighbouring village.

The incident took place in Mahendratola village in Bhootni area of Malda district.

Dhiren Mondal (45) and his wife Sumati (40) were arrested late on Friday night.

The victim, Pratima Mondal (16), was a class 9 student of Paschim Narayanpur High School. Recently, she got involved in a relationship with Achinta Mondal (17), a youth from an adjacent village.

Police officers did not rule out an ‘honour killing’ as the motive behind the crime. “The accused indicated that Achinta belonged to a lower caste though he shared the same surname,” said a police officer.

“The parents of the victim Dhiren Mondal and Sumati Mondal have been arrested for killing their daughter. We have started a suo-motu case against the two and IPC Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) were slapped against them,” said Abhisekh Talukdar, officer-in-charge Bhootni police station.

The Malda district police launched a search operation with divers to recover the body of the girl, but till Saturday afternoon the body was not found.

According to locals, the girl continued to defy the warnings of her parents and kept meeting the youth much against their wishes.

On Friday evening, a quarrel broke out between Pratima and her parents and at that time Dhiren and Sumati strangled their daughter to death.

“They planned to drop the bag in the middle of the river. Accordingly, they put some stones in the bag. But they did not have a boat. On Friday evening they took a small boat from a local ghat without informing its owner. When the owner of the boat started looking for it, he came to know that Dhiren and Sumati had boarded it with a gunny bag,” said a police officer on condition of anonymity.

“When the couple returned home, the owner of the boat and some villagers started quizzing them. They also noticed that their daughter was missing. After being pressured by villagers, the couple confessed to their crime,” said the officer. Around midnight on Friday, the officers of Bhootni police station reached the village and picked up the couple from their house.

The accused will be presented before a court on Sunday.