New Delhi: Days after she posted a video on social media alleging death threats, famous folk singer from Haryana Harshita Dahiya was shot dead while she was on her way back home in Delhi after a performance in Panipat.
“Harshita Dahiya was shot in the head and neck at close range by men who blocked her car in Panipat, Haryana on Tuesday evening and forced others with her to get out. The assailants fled from the scene after killing her,” senior police officer Desh Raj told media in a briefing.
Dahiya, 22, was known for her ‘Ragini’ (Haryana folk) songs. She lived in West Delhi’s Narela for three years.
She had multiple bullet wounds on her body.
“There are eight bullet wounds on Harshita Dahiya’s body. Three bullets are recovered. The rest of the bullets passed through her body. She died instantly,” Dr Rajeev Maan, who carried out autopsy on Dahiya, told Gulf News.
Police suspect Dahiya’s brother-in-law Dinesh Kumar could be responsible for the murder. The folk singer had accused Kumar of raping her in 2013. Kumar, currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, is also an accused in the murder of Dahiya’s mother in 2015.
Harshita’s sister Lata has also accused her husband of being involved in the twin murders.
“My husband is a gangster. My sister was killed by my husband because she was a witness in my mother’s murder,” Lata told Gulf News.
But interestingly in her video posted in September, Dahiya had accused “some people from the industry” of threatening to kill her.
“There are some people from the industry, our own performers from Haryana, threatening me on the phone to compromise and delete my song and dance videos or else I will have to face the consequences,” Dahiya had said in the video.
She said, “do whatever you want, I am not afraid of dying.”
Again last week, she recorded a live video on Facebook accusing some people of threatening to “outrage her modesty.”
Dahiya said she would soon share the name and phone numbers of the people issuing threats to her. However, she did not file a police complaint.
