Atlanta, GA: (IANS) A Clayton County man has been charged with killing his daughter because she wanted to end her arranged marriage. Sandeela Kanwal was found dead by the police Sunday in their family home in Jonesboro, GA.
Appearing in court, Rashid Chaudhry, 54, who is originally from Pakisan, told the judge he did nothing wrong in killing Kanwal, but later said he was “very disturbed” and “not in a state of mind” to talk because of the death of his daughter.
He was advised through his Urdu interpreter Pastor Younis Farhat of the murder charge and his legal rights. The judge also admonished him not to make any statements without clearing them with his attorney, CNN reported.
After Rashid’s wife called the police Sunday, officers discovered possible ligature marks on the victim’s body and noticed an iron and a necklace as possible causes of the bruising.
They also found a “distraught and possibly mournful” Rashid sitting behind a vehicle in the driveway.
Rashid’s wife told the police that Kanwal had wed in Pakistan in an arranged marriage and her husband lived in Chicago. The police said Kanwal remained at her father’s home and worked at an Atlanta Wal-Mart briefly.
AJC reported that Clayton Superior Court records show Kanwal filed for divorce July 1 from Majid Latif, alleging the marriage was irretrievably broken. The couple married March 14, 2002, in Gujrat, a district in the Pakistan province of Punjab. Kanwal and a brother, Hamayun Rashid, 27, bought the Utah Drive house in November 2005, and the Rashid family lived there with the married couple, according to the AJC report.
“The victim was not interested in marrying, nor remaining married to her husband,” the police report said, citing information authorities received from Rashid’s wife.
“This was causing a great deal of friction between the victim and her father”, so much so that the two had not spoken in two months, CNN said quoting the report.
“Apparently she and the father had argued over the marriage and the fact that it was arranged, and at some point during the altercation he did end up killing his daughter,” said Clayton County Police spokesman Tim Owens.
A preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for July 24.
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