Harshita Brella, the 24-year-old Indian woman who was found dead in the boot of a car in London, allegedly told her mother that her husband “was going to kill her”. Ms Brella was found dead on November 14. Her husband Pankaj Lamba, 23, is the prime suspect in her murder. According to The BBC, cops believe that the 24-year-old, who was born in Delhi and moved to the UK in April this year after marrying Lamba in August last year, was fatally strangled days before her body was found in the car’s boot.
Now, in an interview with the BBC, Ms Brella’s mother, Sudesh Kumari, said she spoke to her daughter just weeks before her death. “(Lamba) was making her life miserable,” she told the outlet. “She said I will not go back to him. He will kill me,” the mother added.
Ms Kumari said her daughter was “very simple, very innocent”. “She did not fight with people,” she added.
Ms Brella’s family believe that Lamba is in India, but said Delhi police were “not listening to them”. The police, however, told the outlet that UK authorities have not requested for them to intervene.
Ms Brella’s father, Satbir Brella, said his family has been suffering ever since her death. He begged for justice. “I used to say to her, when I die I want you to perform my final rites. I had no idea that I would have to do hers,” he said.
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The family also stated that the 24-year-old had a miscarriage in the weeks before her death. They also claimed that they had been told that Lamba had hit his wife but alleged that the full scale did not become clear until she called her father crying on 29 August.
“She said ‘he beat me really bad. He even beat me in the street’,” Mr Brella said, adding, “My daughter was crying, crying so hard.”
According to previous reports, Ms Brella had made a report of domestic abuse to police in August and Lamba had been arrested on September 3, but was released on conditional bail and a domestic violence protection order was put in place.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it will investigate Northamptonshire Police’s contact with Ms Brella, while an international manhunt is underway for Lamba. The provisional cause of her death was noted as “manual strangulation pending toxicology and histology” at the inquest hearing.