Days before wedding, BPO girl killed by fiance

Accused Hits, Smothers Girl After Arguement Over Marriage

June 12, 2010

New Delhi: A 22-year-old BPO executive employed with a multinational giant in Gurgaon was allegedly smothered to death by her fiance, who works for another global major, less than a week before the two were to get married. The murder took place on Wednesday night but came to light on Friday, when the girl’s parents arrived in the capital and broke into her rented accommodation at Madangir in southeast Delhi.

The Ambedkar Nagar police have arrested the accused, Ravi Mishra, 27, who has confessed his crime. It seems Mishra was reluctant to commit to the relationship and the two had an argument over this at the girl’s residence on the fateful night. Police said Ravi hit the victim, Monica Jaiswal, with a heavy object and then smothered her. He left the body in the room and left after locking the place.

To cover his tracks, Ravi returned to Monica’s house twice and even asked the neighbours about her whereabouts when the girl’s family, based in Kanpur, sought his help in locating the girl.

According to Virender Kumar Chahal, additional commissioner (southeast), the wedding was slated for Monday but Mishra’s parents, who live in Khagaria, Bihar, were not too keen on the alliance. Monica’s family is from Aligarh but currently lives in Kanpur where her father works in the railways. “The girl’s family wanted her to get married soon. So they fixed a court marriage in Kanpur,” said Chahal.

Monica’s father Ravindra Jaiswal said his family had accepted the relationship. “Since both of them were staying alone in Delhi, we wanted the marriage to take place quickly. We had planned a bigger reception for November,” he said.

Police said Ravi had been trying to put off the wedding. “He did not wish to commit himself. He went to Monica’s residence on Wednesday evening. They had dinner together after which he tried to convince her that he was not in a position to marry. This led to an argument. An enraged Ravi claimed that his own parents were opposed to the match. When Monica refused to relent, he attacked her,” said Chahal. The cops said they have recovered broken glass pieces from Monica’s residence suggesting that a glass or a bottle might have been used as a weapon. “Ravi had planned his escape well. He tried to throw the police off track by claiming that Monica was in love with another person. He finally owned up the crime and said his reluctance to commit to the marriage was the reason why he killed her,” said a senior sleuth.

Monica’s mother Sunita told TOI that she had last spoken to her daughter around 7.30pm on Wednesday. “She said she was at the local market buying grocery. I again called her after 9.30pm but there was no answer. I thought she had gone to sleep. On Thursday, we called her again and no one picked up the phone. We called her office in Gurgaon but they said she had not reported for work. The office called back to say that she was not receiving their calls,” she said. The Jaiswals then turned to Ravi, to check on their daughter. “We called him twice and he said that she was not at home. Finally, we reported the incident to one of our relatives in Delhi. He reported that her house was locked. We finally decided to come to Delhi by the night train,” said Ravindra.

The parents broke open the main door, almost 34 hours after the murder, to find their daughter lying dead. “We immediately began questioning the accused who finally accepted the charges. However, since the accused had constant access to the murder spot, we are ascertaining whether he had managed to remove any evidence,” said an investigating officer. The Jaiswal family left with the body for Aligarh after the postmortem had been conducted at AIIMS.