Student ‘killed by uncle’ for refusing forced marriage
A STUDENT who refused to enter an arranged marriage was murdered by her uncle and her body dumped ‘ like rubbish’, a court heard yesterday.
somaiya Begum, 20, had been moved from her parents’ home for her safety after her father used threats to try to make her marry a cousin from Pakistan.
she was living with relatives in Bradford when her uncle Mohammed taroos Khan, 52, stabbed her in the chest with a metal spike and strangled her, the jury was told.
Her body was rolled up in a carpet and ‘ left to rot’ on wasteland, where it was found 11 days later, by which time her uncle had been arrested.
Khan, of Bradford, denies murdering his niece in June last year.
He has admitted perverting the course of justice by disposing of Ms Begum’s body and burning her mobile phone.
Ms Begum had been homeschooled by her controlling father Yaseen, who stopped her going to college, banned her from watching television and insisted she wore Asian clothes, Bradford Crown Court heard.
When she was 16 she refused to marry a cousin she had never met, leaving her father humiliated and ‘incandescent with rage’, the jury heard.
After going to police she was made the subject of a Forced Marriage Protection Order.
under the order, Ms Begum moved in with her grandmother, had the freedom to live happily as she wanted and was a university undergraduate and part-time carer.
A restraining order banned Khan from the address. six years earlier he had been convicted of attacking his own daughter and threatening to chop her up in the belief she had been involved in ‘inappropriate relationships’, said prosecutor Jason Pitter KC.
However, on June 25, Khan turned up at the house where Ms Begum was living, he said. Her grandmother Anwar was at home and her uncle dawood was asleep upstairs.
Ms Begum was messaging a friend at 3.30pm – around the time that Khan turned up – before her phone stopped working, Mr Pitter said.
there was no evidence that she left the house alive.
she was reported missing the following afternoon and Khan was arrested on June 27. Police found CCtV that showed him dragging a large item from his car near the wasteland.
He told police he was removing ‘garbage’.
Mr Pitter said: ‘ that “garbage” was somaiya.’ It was an ‘inappropriately named honour killing’ that ‘was not honourable’, he added.
Ms Begum’s body was so badly decomposed that the pathologist was unable to ascertain the cause of death.
However, an 11cm (4.5in) long metal spike was found in her chest. It had punctured her lung. there was also evidence of strangulation and a ‘traumatic’ assault.
Khan ‘ told lies to cover his tracks’ and was responsible for the murder, Mr Pitter said.
Khan insists he knew nothing about Ms Begum’s disappearance until after she was killed.
the trial continues.
‘Her body was left to rot’