21 June,2014 09:03 AM IST | | Sagar Rajput
He had driven the girl's uncle, father and lover to a forest in Vasai, then witnessed blood stains on the clothes of the first two, after they returned from the woods without the boy
Thursday's arrest of Subhash Yadav, accused in the so-called honour killing of a 15-year-old boy from Uttar Pradesh who had eloped with his 19-year-old niece in May, has resolved many questions related to the day of the crime.
mid-day's report on June 19
The interrogation has revealed that the trio, Subhash, his brother Gulab (the girl's father), and their servant Chandraprakash Yadav did not lock the boy and the girl in a room. Instead, they took the two straight to Vasai Fort from LTT station and slit the boy's throat.
The accused had hired an auto rickshaw for the night at Rs 1,800, and its driver came forward as a witness on June 19. According to the police, on May 28, 19-year-old Ruchi Yadav's mother called up her husband, Gulab, informing him that their daughter had eloped to Mumbai with a boy.
Also read: Body found in Vasai: Man killed 15-yr-old who eloped with his daughter
Gulab, Subhash and the servant then hired the rickshaw and reached LTT station in Kurla around midnight. After accosting the couple, the trio took them to Nallasopara and then Vasai Road, where they asked the driver to stop near a forested area.
An officer from Kurla GRP said, "The rickshaw driver, servant and Ruchi were asked to stay back, while the brothers took the boy, Abhishek, towards the forest, saying that they would leave him with a friend.
However, when the brothers returned, the driver noticed bloodstains on their t-shirts. When he asked them about it, they threatened him and told him to take them back."
Also read: 15-year-old's decomposed body found near Vasai fort
The driver kept mum for a while, but after the case was reported in newspapers, he decided to approach the police. "He will be considered as a prime witness in the case, as he was the last to see the boy alive.
We cannot arrest him for not informing the cops as he was not involved in the murder," said a police officer. The police further said that the only problem Ruchi's family had with the relationship was that she was already married.
