May 3: “Main aane ki koshish karungi ... tum patience rakhna aur bina meray kahay koi extreme step nahin uthana ... tum apnay aap ko kuch mat karna” (I will try to get back to Delhi. Be patient and don’t take any extreme step ... Don’t hurt yourself).
This was the last text message sent by Nirupama Pathak, a Business Standard journalist to her boyfriend Priyabhanshu Ranjan, a resident of Darbhanga in Bihar, on the morning of April 29. Hours after Ranjan received the message on his cell phone, Pathak was allegedly smothered to death by her family members for plotting to marry Pathak against her caste.
Her friends and colleagues in Delhi where she worked claimed that Dharmendra Pathak, the deceased’s father, called her on April 19 and told her to rush back home as her mother was critically ill.
However, on reaching Jharkhand, Pathak, a brahmin by caste, was allegedly confined to her house in Koderma and barred from talking to Ranjan, who belonged to Kayastha caste, they said.