Rajkot: Police in Una have registered an FIR into the suspicious death of a young woman in Nesda village, Mansu Gohil, after her lover alleged she was murdered by her cousins over a property dispute and their opposition to her relationship. The complaint, filed by the woman’s partner of seven years, Satu Khasiya, claims that family pressure over land ownership and disapproval of their planned marriage led to her killing, followed by a hurried cremation to conceal the crime. Khasiya, 30, a Nesda resident who works in the diamond polishing industry in Surat, filed the FIR on Saturday. He alleged that Mansu was killed by her cousins, Vikram Gohil and Manu Gohil. According to the FIR, Satu and Mansu, who are from the same caste, wanted to get married, but their families opposed the relationship. Mansu owned 12 bighas of land and about five months ago, reportedly made Vikram a 50% partner in the land records. The FIR states that Vikram and Manu later pressured her to end her relationship with Satu and transfer the entire land holding to their names, threatening to kill her if she refused. Satu stated that on the night of March 20, while he was in Surat, he spoke to Mansu on the phone around 8.30pm. She told him that her cousins had called her to Manu’s house for a “meeting” regarding their engagement. When Satu called her again around 9.00pm, she said Vikram was coming to pick her up. Around 7.00am the next morning, Satu received a call from a fellow villager telling him that Mansu had died. When his family members sought details, they were told she had died of a “heart attack”. Her family had cremated her late at night, which, raised suspicions as their community does not traditionally perform last rites at night. In the FIR, Satu said he doubted the claim of a heart attack as Mansu had no history of serious illness, was healthy and worked regularly in the fields. Suspecting that she was murdered during the purported meeting to seize her land, he first contacted the 112 helpline on March 24. With the support of his family, he later lodged a complaint at Una police station. During preliminary investigation, police found evidence suggesting that the accused throttled the victim before hurriedly cremating her body. Police collected forensic evidence and registered an offence under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 103(1) and 54.
