Mother held on charge of killing journo daughter

NEW DELHI/KODERMA: Suspecting that family dishonour overcame maternal love, Jharkhand police on Monday arrested the mother of 22-year-old journalist Nirupama Pathak on charges of murdering her. Nirupama, who worked in a financial daily in Delhi, was around 10 weeks pregnant when she was found dead in mysterious circumstances on April 29 at her home in Jhumari Tilaiya.
"Prima facie, there are indications that family pride was the prime motive behind the murder," said SP (Koderma) Kranti Kumar.Shubha Pathak, the mother, was arrested on the basis of circumstantial evidence, notwithstanding the fact that the police also recovered a suicide note purportedly written by Nirupama.
Shubha was charged with the murder of Nirupama, who was having an affair with another Delhi-based journalist from a caste lower than her Brahmin community, after cops couldn't reconcile or corroborate any of the frequently changing versions of what led to her death. If the charge sticks, it will be a rare case in which an educated middle class woman will face trial for murdering her own daughter.
After the Jharkhand police arrested the mother of 22-year-old journalist Nirupama Pathak on charges of murdering her daughter, SP (Koderma) Kranti Kumar said her mother, Shubha Pathak, was the only person at home when the death took place. Her husband Dharmendra Pathak, a banker posted in Gonda, UP, wasn't at home at the time of Nirupama's death. What led the cops to suspect Shubha was that while she first said Nirupama had died of electrocution, she later said she had hung herself. The post-mortem report revealed she was smothered to death.
"All this goes as circumstantial evidence against her," said SP Kumar. Dharmendra and other family members are still being interrogated as possible "conspirators" in the crime and have been told not to leave Koderma. Among others are Nirupama's two brothers, one an Income Tax inspector in Mumbai and the other pursuing a PhD in Hyderabad. Neither were, according to Koderma Police, in Jhumari Tilaiya at the time of Nirupama's death. SP Kumar said Nirupama had a confirmed ticket for her return to Delhi on the April 28, a day before she was murdered.
The suicide note was found on Nirupama's bed in both Hindi and English in her handwriting. "She could have been forced to write it by her mother before she was gagged to make it look like suicide," said SP Kumar. The post-mortem revealed, apart from her pregnancy, ligature marks round her neck, indicating use of rope for strangulation.
"The mother said Nirupama hung herself. But we found no rope. Also, the height of the ceiling fan could not convince us about the mother's claims," said police officer Chandrashekar.
"The fact that her boyfriend, Priyabhansu Ranjan, was from a caste lower than Nirupama's caused a lot of resentment among the Pathaks," said Kumar. Priyabhansu — also from Bihar — could be questioned soon.
Meanwhile, Priyabhansu — who works for a Hindi news agency in Delhi — said he wasn't convinced that Nirupama's mother was the only person "involved in the murder".Priyabhansu said he had known Nirupama since June 29, 2008.
"When we got jobs, we decided to marry. I wasn't aware she was pregnant; she never told me this. She left Delhi about 10 days before her death hearing of her mother's illness. I received her last message around 6am on March 29, hours before her death, asking me not to worry as she would return soon even if her parents resisted. My being a caste lower than theirs was the biggest hurdle to our marriage," he told TOI.
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Monday sought a report from the Jharkhand Government on Nirupama's death and said the case should be entrusted to a fast-track court. NCW chairperson Girija Vyas said the commission has sought a report from the Jharkhand Government and "the family should not hide anything". "We're giving instructions that justice should prevail," she said.