The husband of a woman who found dead in a car boot, worked his way back into her life after being arrested for domestic violence, according to her sister.
Harshita Brella, 24, was found dead in the boot of a silver Vauxhall Corsa in Ilford, east London on November 14.
Police are trying to trace the prime suspect of the killing, her husband Pankaj Lamba, 23.
Ms Brella’s sister Sonia Dabas told The Sunday Times she is ‘sure’ Lamba is in India, which she described as a ‘very safe place for him’.
She said Ms Brella, who was from Delhi in India, entered into an arranged marriage with Lamba earlier this year, and started working in a packing factory near Corby, Northamptonshire.
She said Lambas would beat his wife and deny her access to money.
‘The controlling was really bad towards the end; he even told her not to work anymore,’ Ms Dabas said.
‘When she told us this we urged her to resist his controlling behaviour.
‘I said, “What is this, house arrest? It’s not acceptable. If something were to happen to you, we wouldn’t even know.”‘
Ms Brella had initially kept the abuse secret from her family, Ms Dabas said, but eventually told sister on August 28.
She went to the police soon after. .
‘The run-up to it (going to police) was beatings by Pankaj over nothing,’ Ms Dabas told the The Sunday Times.
‘She went to the police because he had beaten her.’
Lamba was arrested by Northamptonshire Police officers 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.
Lamba had been ordered not to call his wife, but while Ms Brella was staying in a refuge she received a phone call from India from one of Lamba’s relatives, who then added him to the phone call, according to her family.
Ms Dabas said: ‘They both began badgering her and bullying her to withdraw the case against Pankaj.
‘So she went to the police to withdraw it and found a rented room to stay [in].’
Lamba then slowly started working his way back into her life, Ms Dabas said.
Police suspect Ms Brella was strangled in Corby on the evening of November 10 before her body was driven to Ilford in the boot of a car the next day.
The IOPC said it will investigate Northamptonshire Police’s contact with Ms Brella, while an international manhunt is under way for Lamba.
Ms Dabas added: ‘I am sure Pankaj is in India but we can’t do anything to get the police on to him.
‘India is a very safe place for him. It’s easy to go missing in India.’
Ms Brella’s family paid tribute to her in a statement released last month.
They said: ‘Harshita, you left this world but you are still with us in our hearts and will always be there.
‘We will never forget you till our last breath. Always stay with us.
‘We miss you in every moment of our life.’
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