Help Cécile’s Family Get Justice for Her Brutal Murder in India

Every year thousands of young, woman are brutally murdered in India by their husbands and in-laws in the so-called dowry murders. A recent survey found that over 100,000 women were burnt to death. [See these posts]. Yet, most of the murders never get justice, because of the inherent corruption and misogyny in the Indian police and judiciary.

Cécile Acosta Reynaud, a Mexican woman living in India, became a victim of this system in 2012. Cécile was studying dance, at a school in Thrissure, Kerala, and her boyfriend from Mexico, Martin Manrique Mansour was also in India, doing his post-doctoral studies at Kalasalingam University, Krishnankoil, in Tamil Nadu. It was while visiting him to see their 6-year-old daughter, that Cécile went missing. Later a body that had been burnt was discovered, and DNA tests established it to be Cécile. Cecile is believed to have been brutally murdered and then burnt by her boyfriend from Mexico and on initial investigations Mansour admitted to the crime.

However, even though Mansour’s murder trial is still underway, he has been for some mysterious reason been set free from jail. Further more, the 6-year-old child of the couple, who is believed to have been a witness to her father’s disposing of her mother’s body, is now in the custody of the paternal grandmother according to court orders. It is equally mystifying why the courts would give the custody of this child to the family of a man under a murder trial, instead of to the mother’s family that has been fighting for the child’s custody.

Cécile’s family sent us a letter requesting assistance from anyone in India who can help, and we we have posted the letter below. It explains her case fully.

THIS IS HOW YOU CAN HELP CECILE’S FAMILY Please circulate this post. You can re-blog it. We encourage you to blog it in different Indian and European languages. We need to make sure that Cecile’s story stays highlighted in India and around the world, till such time her family gets justice from the Indian courts. If anyone has any information, or if you are based in Tamil Nadu where this incident occurred, and think you can either assist or give helpful advice to the Acosta family on what they can do to get justice for Cecile’s murder and get the custody of her 6-year-old daughter, then you can send us an email at 50millionmissing@gmail.com with the header “Help for Cecile”

Here’s the letter we received on behalf of the Acosta Reynaud-Pulido family