Hindustan Times
LUCKNOW, Nov 18: "I am here because of my mother," a jubilant Priyanka had announced from the stage moments after she was crowned Miss Meerut 2005. Three years later, on Monday she once again faced mediapersons: "Yes, I have murdered my mother and father."
Pushed to the edge by years of abuse and neglect, a former beauty queen killed her parents in a fit of rage, the police said on Monday.
Priyanka Singh, who won the Miss Meerut beauty pageant in 2005, is a student of interior design at the Capital’s South Delhi Polytechnic.
On November 10, Priyanka and friend Anju visited her parents in Meerut’s Prayag Colony to get her marksheet. But when Santosh, her mother, turned down her demand for money, Priyanka allegedly throttled her to death.
Hearing the commotion, her father Premveer Singh, a retired junior engineer, rushed to the room. Police said Priyanka then slit her father’s throat with a kitchen knife.
The two girls then fled with valuables, police said.
Priyanka and Anju were arrested Monday morning. “We have recovered a mobile phone, stolen jewellery, fixed deposit certificates certificates and her father’s will from Priyanka,” Meerut Superintendent of Police Rakesh Jolly said.
According to Jolly, Priyanka harboured deep feelings of hatred for her father.
“My father often teased me for being an illegitimate child and my brother, too, regularly beat me up. Also, they didn’t support my dream of pursuing a career in fashion design even after I had completed a course in the subject,” Priyanka said.
After falling out with her family, Priyanka left Meerut and decided to stay with her friend Anju in Amroha five months back. Here she came into close contact with Ajendra, a cousin of Anju. On hearing this, her father lodged an FIR against Ajendra, accusing him of abducting her.
Priyanka’s agony didn’t end with leaving her family. When Anju’s cousin Ajendra and his uncle too outraged her modesty, she filed a complaint against them with the National Commission for Women in New Delhi.
She tried finding a job in Noida and then another in Saharanpur, but was again cheated by Tarun, a friend who promised to help Priyanka get a job.
At the South Delhi Polytechnic, Anju and she became close friends after realising that Anju, too, had faced a lot of abuse from her relatives after losing her parents as a child.