Newly released CCTV has captured Harshita Brella’s husband, the prime suspect in her murder, near a Vauxhall Corsa for several hours on the night she is feared to have died
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CCTV shows Harshita Brella’s murder suspect husband
The husband of Harshita Brella, the prime suspect in the murder of his spouse whose body was found in the boot of a car last month, can be seen in new CCTV footage.
The 24-year-old was found in the back of a silver Vauxhall Corsa in Brisbane Road, Ilford, east London, on November 14. An international manhunt was quickly launched for her husband Pankaj Lamba, 23 – the prime suspect in her murder – who is thought to have fled the country.
Now, new CCTV seeming to show Lamba hours after the murder has been revealed, ITV reported. Recorded on a motion-sensor camera between 8.54pm and 11.51pm on Sunday, November 10, it shows a man walking back and forth next to a Vauxhall Corsa. He triggered it several times as he can be seen looking at his mobile phone.
It is next triggered at around 4am and the car is already gone. Police believe he strangled his wife the same night and drove her body to London the next day. In an emotional interview with BBC Newsnight, her mother Sudesh Kumari said she spoke to her daughter just weeks before her death.
Describing her as “very simple, very innocent, the distraught mother said: “(Lamba) was making her life miserable. She said I will not go back to him. He will kill me.” She did not fight with people.” Harshita’s father Satbir Brella broke down crying as he spoke to the BBC. He added: “She was a very sweet daughter. The police in Delhi are not listening to us. They say the UK police have not made a request, so how can we do anything? How can we arrest him?”
“She told me about it earlier, but it was on the morning of August 29 when she called me crying and said he beat me really badly. She said I have called a friend and she is coming to help me. I told that friend can you take Harshita to your home and I will speak to her a little later. My daughter was crying, crying so hard.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it will investigate Northamptonshire Police’s contact with Ms Brella, while an international manhunt is under way for Lamba. Ms Brella had made a report of domestic abuse to police in August and Lamba had been arrested on September 3, but was released on conditional bail and a domestic violence protection order was put in place, the watchdog previously said.
