Woman beheaded by brother in law, as she earned more than him

New Delhi: Thirty-one-year old woman was allegedly beheaded by her brother in law as she earned more than him. He not only chopped off her head but also her hands. 17-year-old Sanjana went with police to identify her mother’s mutilated body that was found in an abandoned park in Rohini Sector 24.

The girl could identify Kalawati’s body with the help of a flower-shaped tattoo on the body’s right wrist, reports the HT.

Sanjana’s paternal uncle Rama Shankar (35) had called the police and confessed to the crime on Saturday afternoon. He allegedly committed the crime on Friday night. Shankar did not like Kalawati being a liberal woman and he believed that she was hurting his family’s “honour”, police said.

He murdered Kalawati and chopped off her head and hands, police said. He then wrapped the severed head and hands, and the knife in the woman’s saree before throwing the bundle in a tempo that was passing by. The body parts are yet to be recovered.

Kalawati’s family comprised her husband Fugi Lal (33), daughters Sanjana (17), Mannu (15), Sarita (12) and son Armaan (10). They had shifted to Delhi two years ago from Chitrakoot at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, for better livelihood.

Kalawati was running a cosmetics shop in the village, while in Delhi, she worked in a manufacturing unit close to her house. She was financially independent and worked hard to meet the expenses of her children’s education, said her family. Her husband works as an e-rickshaw driver.

Things were going fine for the family, but the elder brother-in-law, Rama Shankar, was creating mischief by unnecessarily interfering in their lives, said the 17-year-old.

“Bade papa was jealous of us. Our family was earning more than him. He did not like it. He had even demanded Rs 1 lakh from my mother. He threatened her when she refused. My mother was extremely scared and used to cry. But she bravely went to work every day and did not tell my father anything. She did not want dad to come in harm’s way,” Sanjana said.

Shankar, who is a scrap dealer lived in a separate house with his family at Pehladpur in outer Delhi’s Begumpur. He would object to Kalawati coming home late from work or whenever he found her speaking to her colleagues out on the streets, Sanjana said.

“My mother was scared that he might harm her physically. She shared her worries with me. I had told her that uncle wouldn’t dare to harm her with us being around,” recalls Sanjana.

On Friday, Kalawati had woken up early, as usual, to get ready for work. She made breakfast and lunch for the family, packed some food for herself and left for work at 10 am. Her work usually used to get over by 10.30 pm. When she did not return till late in the night, the family panicked.

“I must have called her 100 times through the night. Her phone was not reachable. I and my father went to the police station in the morning. A missing report was filed by afternoon and we returned home. A couple of hours later, police informed us about her death,” said Sanjana.