AHMEDABAD: An 18-year-old from Gujarat’s Banaskantha who had cleared NEET was allegedly murdered by her uncle and father in a suspected “honour killing” after they got to know that she was living with her boyfriend, according to the FIR registered by police on her partner’s complaint. The teenager had scored 478 marks in her NEET exam, making her eligible for admission to a govt medical college. While she wished to continue her studies and live independently, her family of farmers disapproved of it. Chandrika Chaudhary was allegedly given milk laced with sedatives by father Sendha, and then he and her uncle Shivram strangled her with a dupatta on June 25. She was also hurriedly cremated. Police officials quoted Shivram as telling some villagers that Chandrika had a heart attack. While Shivram is in custody, Sendha is yet to be traced.

Shivram had visited some colleges and saw boys and girls studying together. He told her father she should not be sent there as she might fall in love with a boy and marry him. They took away her phone, cut her off from social media, and made her do only household chores,” claimed 23-year-old Haresh Chaudhary, Chandrika’s partner. Chandrika was allegedly murdered a few days before Gujarat HC was to hear a habeas corpus petition filed by Haresh that eventually exposed the “premeditated” killing. She had first met Haresh in Feb this year. Police officials said Chandrika’s family hurriedly declared the cause of death as heart attack and quickly cremated the body without postmortem.“Have milk and rest well. Sleep well,” were the last words Chandrika heard from her father before she was offered the glass of milk, according to the FIR.According to Haresh, the couple had signed a “live-in agreement” just two weeks before Chandrika was killed. “She wanted to study medicine. We were not harming anyone. We just wanted to live peacefully,” Haresh said.