Fashion blogger Ritika Singh murder case explained

On June 24, a 30-year-old Fashion blogger from Ghaziabad was thrown from the fourth floor of a rented flat in Agra's Tajganj ara with her hands tied, killing her on the spot. The woman has been identified as Ritika Singh (30), an Instagram influencer with more than 44,000 followers, and her husband has been identified as Akash Gautam.

Ritika Singh murder case

Ritika had a bachelor's degree and had taken a course in social media and blogging, her family said. She opened a fashion, lifestyle and travel blogging account on social media two years ago. She met Aakash in 2014 and they got married. Her family claimed that she would live on her earnings since she did not have a fixed source of income, Indian Express reported.

Utkarsh Singh, Ritika's brother alleged, that “It was very clear that she would provide money for the family. She worked as a teacher in a school and kept a social media profile on the sidelines. Aakash's whole family would put pressure on her”.

Her family alleged that a few years after their marriage, she began to be physically abused and, in one case, burned with a hot iron. “She told us that Aakash's family was abusive. She was beaten and threatened with dire consequences,” Utkarsh alleged.

Police said the woman was staying with a friend and her husband confronted her there. After which, an argument ensued between the couple and after that, Akash and her family members allegedly tied her hands and threw her off the balcony of the apartment, The Indian Express reported.

Reportedly, Gautam arrived at the apartment of Singh and his alleged associate with some members of their family, where a fight broke out between the three. Gautam apparently bound the hands of the deceased with a rope and threw her off the balcony, where he met her brutal end.

Singh separated from her husband

Preliminary reports suggest that Singh, who hailed from Vijay Nagar of Ghaziabad, had married Gautam in 2014 in Firozabad. Three years later, she met a man named Vipul Agarwal on Facebook.

The late she separated from her husband in 2018 and moved in with Agarwal. They had moved to the Nagla Mewati area, Agra in Uttar Pradesh two and a half months ago.

Akash and four others, including two women, arrived at the apartment on Friday. They allegedly started assaulting Vipul and Ritika as soon as they entered. According to Vipul, they locked him in the bathroom while they tied Ritika's hands with a rope and then threw her off the balcony of the apartment.

Police statement

Sudhir Kumar Singh, SSP Agra said: “We received information that a woman died after falling from the fourth floor of a building in the Nagla Mewati area. During the investigation, it was discovered that she had been staying with a friend in the flat. Her husband came with her family members on Friday and an argument broke out, eventually pushing her out of the building.”

Police added that Ritika's husband and in-laws also assaulted her friend before throwing her out of the building. Reportedly, Ritika had been living in the flat for the past year and a half. Vipul was her partner, and after her husband learned of her whereabouts, he visited the apartment, which caused a fight with her wife.

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