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. 

Also Read | 2-Year-Old Boy In US Accidentally Shoots And Kills Mother With Unsecured Gun: Police

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.

New Delhi:

‘Aaj phone nahi kiya, sab theek thak hai beta’ (You didn’t call today, is everything okay?) — Harshita Brella’s 55-year-old father Sabir Brella breaks into tears as he looks at his last message to his daughter.

The body of 24-year-old Harshita was recovered from the boot of a car in east London on November 14. The car, which belongs to her husband Pankaj Lamba, was parked in Brisbane Road, Ilford.

The Brella family has claimed that it was a planned murder as Pankaj managed to flee to India just a day after brutally killing the woman.

Harshita’s maternal uncle Sandeep Ahlawat said they tried to approach the UK Embassy in Delhi to seek their help in the case but they were not allowed to enter the premises.

It’s been over 10 days since Harshita’s death but the family still doesn’t know about any developments in the case, he said.

We don’t know when we would receive her body here in India, Ahlawat said.

Showing photos of Harshita’s childhood to a recent one where she had slap marks on her face, Sabir said “Pankaj came back to India after killing her. I request Indian agencies and the government to intervene and arrest him.” UK’s Northamptonshire Police has launched an international manhunt for Pankaj, whom they suspect of murdering his wife earlier this month at her home in Corby before driving her lifeless body to London, some 145 km away from their house, and fleeing the country after abandoning the car.

Talking about his last WhatsApp message to his daughter, Sabir said she did not reply because she was no more then.

Her elder sister Sonia Dabas told PTI, “We had the last video call with Harshita on November 10 when she told us that she was preparing food for Pankaj who was coming over for dinner.” “From the next day her phone was not reachable. We had a feeling that Pankaj had killed her by then,” she said.

Sonia said, “My parents are completely broken down since we got the tragic news. We have a hope from our government in India to intervene and get justice for my sister.” It appears to be a planned murder as Pankaj managed to return to India just a day after killing her.

“We have proof of him coming back to India, which we have told to London police. Here no one is helping us. We have also approached our local police and filed a complaint of dowry harassment against Pankaj and her parents,” Sonia said.

Pankaj, a resident of Haryana’s Jhajjar and Harshita, of Delhi’s Palam, got married in March this year and moved to London.

“It was an arranged marriage. Pankaj’s uncle, who is in Delhi Police, told us that he works in a private company but later turned out to be a security guard in London,” Sonia said.

She further said that Pankaj and his family used to harass Harshita for dowry.

“Pankaj used to beat her and force her to get money. Due to the regular fights, she started living separately and working in a warehouse. Despite living separately, he would handle her bank accounts.” “With a hope that some day things will become normal, my daughter kept fulfilling his demand, unknowingly that this would be the end,” her father, Brella said.

The Barella family said they got the information about her death when they got a call from Delhi Police on November 15.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)