India: Father shoots daughter to death and mother helps dump body because 'she married man from other caste'

Aayushi Yadav / Aayushi Chaudhary
born: 2000
shot dead: November 17, 2022
Residence: Badarpur, Delhi
Origin: India
Children: none
Perpetrators: her father Nitesh Kumar Yadav (age 49) and mother Brajbala Yadav (age 45)

On Thursday, November 17, 21-year-old Ayushi Yadav, still living at home, was shot dead with two bullets in the chest by her 49-year-old father Nitesh Kumar Yadav after an argument over her marriage last year to a man of another caste.

Her body was wrapped in plastic and put in a red suitcase and then dumped near a highway near the town of Mathura in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Police arrested father Nitesh Yadav and mother Brajbala Yadav a few days after the murder after they made conflicting statements to officers. They were charged under Indian Law Sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (making evidence of a crime disappear, or giving false information, to protect the perpetrator).

"Brajbala Yadav may not have shot her daughter, but she was involved in disposing of the body and had accompanied her husband in a car to Mathura," a police spokesman said.

Police believe "honor killing" to be the motive. The father reportedly confessed to shooting his daughter at home. According to police, the victim's brother also knew about it.

Nine days before her 22nd birthday, Aayushi Chaudhary's body was cremated in the presence of police officers. Ayushi was training in computer application at a private school and hoped to become a software engineer.

What is an honour killing?

An honour killing is a murder in the name of honour. If a brother murders his sister to restore family honour, it is an honour killing. According to activists, the most common reasons for honour killings are as the victim:

refuses to cooperate in an arranged marriage.
wants to end the relationship.
was the victim of rape or sexual assault.
was accused of having a sexual relationship outside of marriage.

Human rights activists believe that 100,000 honour killings are carried out every year, most of which are not reported to the authorities and some are even deliberately covered up by the authorities themselves, for example because the perpetrators are good friends with local policemen, officials or politicians. Violence against girls and women remains a serious problem in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Serbia and Turkey.