By IANS,
Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) : Once feted as ‘Miss Meerut’, 25-year-old Priyanka Singh was Tuesday remanded in 14 days judicial custody by a court here for the brutal murder of her parents, police said.
Priyanka and her friend Anju were produced in a Meerut court, which sent them to judicial remand.
On Nov 10, Priyanka had throttled her mother in a fit of rage and knifed her father when he tried to intervene. Her friend Anju was with her throughout, said police.
Her mother had apparently refused to hand over some family papers and other personal articles to her, and also taunted her. This angered the girl and she throttled her mother to death. When her father Premvir Singh tried to stop her, the girls grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed him. The two fled the spot, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Meerut, Rakesh Jolly.
According to police, Priyanka used to hate her father for taunting her as illegitimate.
Sources close to Priyanka’s mother Santosh said that the girl was born of her relations with her husband. But Premvir Singh suspected Santosh of having illegitimate relations.
“It’s extremely tragic and unfortunate that first the mother and later the daughter were subjected to taunts and harassment by Premvir because of his suspicion,” a relative of Santosh said.
Harassed by her family, Priyanka had begun searching for a new place to live in Amroha with the help of her friend Anju. Here Anju’s cousin Ajendra tried to molest her. She had to face the same situation at Noida while hunting for a job, police said.
Priyanka had been crowned ‘Miss Meerut’ in 2005 by then SSP Anju Gupta.
Captain Bhagwan Dass Gupta, one of the organisers of the show of the Mishika Group, said: “We did not imagine that the girl would revolt against her family like this. She must have been burning from inside.”
Psychologists say Priyanka’s extreme step was not due to a sudden fit of rage but the outcome of being subjected to prolonged harassment by her family members.
“Prolonged physical or mental torture can lead to aggression and anger among people, which after a period of time can erupt in this kind of violence,” Meerut-based psychologist Poonam Deodatt said.
“A child expects a lot from her parents, but instead when she is subjected to harassment and torture, the child starts harbouring feelings of hatred for them. Generally, daughters are attached a lot to their parents. But when instead of love and security, they are tortured, it is very likely that they could resort to extreme measures,” she said.
The taunts that she was illegitimate must have rankled a lot. “When this happened over a period of time, she might have resorted to the murder,” said another noted psychologist Purnima Sahai.