Uncle 'murdered niece and dumped body like rubbish’

A YOUNG Asian woman, 20, was allegedly murdered by her uncle and “dumped like rubbish” after she refused a forced marriage, a court heard.

Somaiya Begum’s body was found wrapped in a rug on land near Fitzwilliam Street, Bradford.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Mohammed Taroos Khan, 53, allegedly killed her at her home in Binnie Street on June 25, 2022.

Begum lived with another uncle and her grandmother under a Forced Marriage Protection Order, after her father tried to force her into marriage with a cousin from Pakistan using threats of violence, the BBC said.

Her uncle, Khan denied murdering the university student but admitted to perverting the course of justice.

Prosecutor Jason Pitter KC was quoted as saying Begum’s body was badly decomposed and a 4-inch (11cm) metal spike was found in her chest, puncturing her lung.

Khan was caught on CCTV dragging a big and seemingly heavy object from the car to the open ground, stopping next to a gap in a wall on Fitzwilliam Street.

"That was obviously Somaiya," the jury was told.

Defence lawyer Zafar Ali KC acknowledged the severity and inexcusability of the attack on Begum on June 25 last year, but said his client did not murder her, despite accepting that Begum was killed.

“He knew nothing about the death until after Somaiya had been killed.” Ali said his client had been “summoned” to Binnie Street “to dispose of her body”.

The trial is expected to last three weeks, the report added.