- A young man from Muzaffarpur posted a video that would end up cracking open a murder case
- Gauri Shankar Kumar married Sujata Kumari in love, but her family filed a false case
- Sujata’s brother confessed to strangling her over caste issues and cremating her body
A young man from Bihar's Muzaffarpur district recently posted a video on social media that would end up cracking open a murder case.
In the video, he said he had married a young woman from a neighbouring village for love. He claimed her family had then filed a false case against him, which led to his arrest, and that they had gone on to plot his wife's murder. He warned that if Muzaffarpur police did not catch his wife's killers, he would take his own life.
How It All Began
The husband, Gauri Shankar Kumar (22), the son of Raju Ram, had been in love with Sujata Kumari (19) from the nearby village of Kodariya Gosaipur since 2020.
Sujata's grandparents on her mother's side lived in Gauri Shankar's own village, Ghansaut, so she had been staying there with her maternal uncle and attending the same school as him. Their friendship grew during their schooldays, and the two waited for each other for six years before finally eloping on 18 January. Once Sujata went missing, her family registered an FIR against the young man.
According to Gauri Shankar, after leaving home with Sujata on 18 January, the pair first went to a friend's house in Samastipur, where they got married. Two days later, on 20 January, he took her to Haryana, where they began living together as husband and wife.
Caught After Twenty Days
Twenty days on, Muzaffarpur police, working with their counterparts in Haryana, traced and held the couple on 11 February. They were brought back to Muzaffarpur the following day and produced in court.
There, Sujata told the court she was an adult, had married by her own choice, and wanted to live with her husband. Despite this, Gauri Shankar was sent to jail, and the police placed Sujata in the care of her aunt.
A Mother's Visit On Holi
Gauri Shankar said that when he was jailed, the police had assured him his wife would return to him once he was released. But while he was inside, Sujata's mother came to her aunt's house on the day of Holi and took her home.
He said the last time he spoke to his wife was on 31 March, shortly after his own release from jail. He has not heard from her since. He alleges her family killed her and disposed of her body, and says he has petitioned several police officials for help without any result. His video, in which he accused the police of inaction and threatened suicide, soon went viral. The story was first reported by NDTV.
Once NDTV's report became public, Muzaffarpur police moved quickly. DSP (East-1) Alay Vats took note of the case and directed the Station House Officer of Siwaipatti police station to investigate without delay.
Officers took a formal complaint from Gauri Shankar and began searching for Sujata. When she could not be found, her brother, Abhishek Kumar, was taken in for questioning. As the interrogation continued, the truth behind her disappearance slowly came to light.
During questioning, Abhishek Kumar admitted that his sister's relationship with a man from a different caste and her decision to elope with him had left him deeply angered.
He said that once the young man was jailed and the court had placed Sujata in her aunt's care, their mother persuaded her to come home on Holi. After that, acting on a plan, Abhishek, along with other relatives and accomplices, strangled Sujata to death and cremated her body.
(With inputs from Mani Bhushan Sharma)
