17-yr-old girl murdered by hardline Hindu grandpa, uncles for wearing jeans in UP

Lucknow, July 22: A minor girl in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria district was murdered by her grandfather and two uncles, reportedly after she flared up in opposition to their ‘no jeans’ diktat.

The crime occurred on Monday but came to light on Tuesday when passersby saw the 17-year-old victim’s body hanging from the grille of Patanwa bridge on Kasya-Patna highway. The passersby alerted the police who then started investigations leading to the arrest of the victim’s grandfather, identified Paramhans Paswan, a hardline Hindu. Her uncles -- Vyas Paswan and Arvind Paswan -- are at large.

Police said the now-deceased teenager’s father is employed in Punjab’s Ludhiana. She started wearing western dresses after she, along with her family, moved to Ludhiana. Later, she and her mother, Shakuntala, returned to their village in Deoria’s Mahuadeeh area. Elders here demanded that the teenager switch to Hindu wear. She, however, didn’t pay heed to their demands and used to stay out for long hours, according to a report.

“On Monday, Arvind asked Shakuntala to stop her daughter from wearing western clothes and staying outside for long. Oram has also supported Arvind. In the meantime, the girl returned home and overheard the conversation. The issue snowballed when the girl opposed the diktat and allegedly slapped Arvind. Irked over this, Arvind, his wife, and brother (Vyas) pushed the girl in a fit of rage. She hit against the wall and slumped on the ground, bleeding profusely,” Deoria SP Shripati Mishra said.

After the teenager died, the accused hired an auto-rickshaw to take her body to the Patanwa bridge. The accused threw the body from the bridge. The body, however, got stuck in the bridge’s grille and passersby spotted it. Thereafter, the police were alerted and an investigation was taken up.

The SP stated that the girl’s grandfather and the auto-rickshaw driver have been arrested, adding that efforts were being made to apprehend her two uncles.

This comes months after a few Bajrang Dal members from Mangaluru in Karnataka were arrested in connection with a case of purported ‘moral policing’ after they allegedly attacked an inter-faith couple on a city bus.