Aayushi Yadav / Aayushi Chaudhary
born: 2000
shot dead: November 17, 2022
Residence: Badarpur, Delhi
Origin: India
Children: none
Perpetrators: her father Nitesh Kumar Yadav (age 49) and mother Brajbala Yadav (age 45)
On Thursday, November 17, 21-year-old Ayushi Yadav, still living at home, was shot dead with two bullets in the chest by her 49-year-old father Nitesh Kumar Yadav after an argument over her marriage last year to a man of another caste.
Her body was wrapped in plastic and put in a red suitcase and then dumped near a highway near the town of Mathura in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Police arrested father Nitesh Yadav and mother Brajbala Yadav a few days after the murder after they made conflicting statements to officers. They were charged under Indian Law Sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (making evidence of a crime disappear, or giving false information, to protect the perpetrator).
"Brajbala Yadav may not have shot her daughter, but she was involved in disposing of the body and had accompanied her husband in a car to Mathura," a police spokesman said.
Police believe "honor killing" to be the motive. The father reportedly confessed to shooting his daughter at home. According to police, the victim's brother also knew about it.
Nine days before her 22nd birthday, Aayushi Chaudhary's body was cremated in the presence of police officers. Ayushi was training in computer application at a private school and hoped to become a software engineer.