Mumbai Crime: Man dies after attack by wife's family

Cops arrested the girl's cousins and their friends for murder

After two days of battling for his life following a brutal assault by his wife's relatives, just before Brijesh Gupta (26) breathed his last, he revealed a horrific tale of honour killing. The police have now arrested four people, including two of the bride's cousins, who at first pretended to accept him into the family, only to later stab him in the back.

mid-day had reported on the vicious attack on Brijesh by his wife's cousins, who tried to force him to sign divorce papers ('Wife's kin kidnap youth, assault him for divorce').

Before he passed away on Saturday, Brijesh told the cops how he fell in love with a girl from his neighbourhood in Tilak Nagar, Chembur, never suspecting that she was already married to someone else.

Child marriage
Her parents had forced her into marriage when she was just 10, but she had never been with her husband. She had just turned 21, and it was time for her gauna - a north Indian ceremony that serves as the bride's send-off when she leaves her childhood home for her marital home. Last April, before her gauna, she got hitched to Brijesh in a secret wedding and they eloped to his village in Satna in Madhya Pradesh.

Soon enough, her family discovered their whereabouts, and they dragged their daughter back to Mumbai. But she was unhappy and wanted to be with Brijesh. Unable to stay apart from her, Brijesh moved back to Mumbai, this time taking up residence in Wadala. His wife, too, fled there and was reunited with him.

This time, it took longer to find the couple. Two weeks ago, her first husband even filed a complaint at the Govandi police station, accusing Brijesh of abducting his wife. The police tracked the couple down but backed off after Brijesh showed them his marriage certificate.

False reconciliation
"When girl's family learned that he is in Wadala, this time they went to him and politely asked him to marry their daughter as per Rajasthani customs, promising to accept him. He agreed to their condition and, on Thursday, they called him to shop for the wedding. But the girl's cousins and their friends took him to flat in Rawalpada, Dahisar and locked him in," said sources from Dahisar police.

"The four accused tried to intimidate him into signing divorce papers. Brijesh was in shock; he had not expected such a turnaround. He refused sign the papers, and the four assaulted him. Brijesh nearly managed to escape - he fled from the apartment and ran for his life, when one of the accused struck him from behind with a knife.

When he fell, they hit him with rocks," the cop added.

(Dis)honour killing
The accused left Brijesh to die on the road, but he managed to get all the way to Kandivli, and got himself admitted in Shatabdi Hospital. As his condition was serious, he was moved to KEM Hospital in Parel, but after battling for his life for a couple of days, he breathed his last on Saturday. The police have arrested all four accused - the girl's cousins Nagaji Bharvad (24) and Karnan Bharvad (26) and their friends Karnam Chauhan (26) and Rajesh Gohil (28). "As the victim died, we are adding the murder charge in the FIR," confirmed Senior Inspector Subhash Sawant, Dahisar police station.