Relatives deny police claim: Reshma reported domestic attacks

Relatives of murder victim Reshma Kanchan, 25, said the police claim that the young mother did not report domestic abuse to them is false.

“Why are they not telling the truth?” asked her sister Beena Kanchan. “They know that is not the truth. I was there when she made the reports. There were also receipts given to her after the reports.”

Beena said the family is already having a hard time coping with the chopping death of her sister at the hands of a male relative, and to wake up to “false accusations” from the police is "just heartbreaking."

“My sister went to the police station over and over to make reports that this man was threatening to kill her. She was fed up.

"The reports are there. We went with her at times and other times she went by herself.

"These lies need to stop, please.”

In a statement on Wednesday, the police said Kanchan never made any reports of domestic violence and there was no protection order in effect. They said she made one report about a disturbance of the peace on Wednesday last week and asked that no action be taken against the man she complained about.

The police said two officers spoke to Kanchan and a man who also lived at her mother’s house. It was also reported that the man and Kanchan’s mother had a falling-out and he was no longer allowed to stay there.

On Tuesday morning Kanchan was fatally chopped on the neck on her way to work in Penal when she was ambushed by a male relative.

Neighbours found him smoking a cigarette with an apparently self-inflicted wound to the neck. He is hospitalised under police guard.

Kanchan lived at Laltoo Trace in Penal with her two daughters – five and two, her 50-year-old mother, Davica Kanchan, and other relatives.

She was a part-time URP worker at a primary school.