Harshita Brela, a 24-year-old Indian woman found dead in the boot of a car in London, had reportedly told her mother that her husband was “going to kill her”. Ms Brela was found dead on 14 November. Her 23-year-old husband Pankaj Lamba is the prime suspect in her murder. according to BBCPolice believe the 24-year-old girl, who was born in Delhi and moved to the UK in April this year after marrying Lamba in August last year, died days before her body was found in the trunk of the car. She was strangled to death.
Now, in an interview with BBCMs Brela’s mother Sudesh Kumari said she had spoken to her daughter only a few weeks before her death. “(Lamba) was making her life miserable,” he told the outlet. “He said I wouldn’t go back to him. He would kill me,” the mother said.
Ms Kumari said her daughter was “very simple, very innocent”. “She didn’t fight with people,” he said.
Ms Brela’s family believes Lamba is in India, but said Delhi Police was “not listening to them”. However, police told the outlet that UK authorities have not requested them to intervene.
Ms Brela’s father, Satbir Brela, said his family has been suffering since her death. He pleaded for justice. He said, “I told her, when I die I want you to perform my last rites. I didn’t know I would have to perform her last rites.”
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The family also said the 24-year-old had suffered a miscarriage a few weeks before her death. He also claimed that he was told that Lamba had hit his wife, but alleged that the entire matter did not become clear until he called his father crying on August 29.
“She said ‘He beat me very badly. He even beat me in the street’,” Mr Brela said. “My daughter was crying, crying very loudly.”
According to previous reports, Ms Brela reported domestic abuse to police in August and Lamba was arrested on September 3, but was released on conditional bail and a domestic violence protection order was imposed.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it would investigate Northamptonshire Police’s contact with Ms Brela, while an international search for Lamba continues. The inquest hearing ruled that her provisional cause of death was “manual strangulation pending toxicology and histology”.
