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British police have travelled to India as the hunt continues for a fugitive husband charged with murdering his wife in the UK. Harshita Brella, 24, was strangled at her home in Northamptonshire before being left in the boot of a Vauxhall Corsa in Ilford, East London, on November 14 last year. Harshita had sought help from the police before she was killed, saying she was being abused by her husband Pankaj Lamba. Detectives flew to India in July to meet Harshita's family and return her belongings as Indian police continue to search for Lamba. Det Supt Johnny Campbell, said in a statement released on Tuesday: "As we remember Harshita Brella on the first anniversary of her death, our thoughts very much remain with her family and all who loved her. " Northamptonshire Police has provided family liaison support to Harshita’s family throughout the past year and in July, I was privileged to travel to India to meet with family members and return the personal belongings of their much loved and much missed daughter and sister." The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating Northamptonshire Police’s contact with the dead woman. Harshita was strangled in Corby on the evening of 10 November before her body was driven 100 miles south to Ilford the next day, according to the UK police. Lamba, 23, is understood to have flown to his native India from Heathrow airport three days before Harshita's body was discovered. According to local media reports, Lamba was caught on camera at a bank in Gurugram, a satellite city south of the national capital Delhi, in March. Lamba, wearing a face mask, withdrew Rs430,000 (£3,760) from the ATM where he was filmed by CCTV cameras, a police source told The Indian Express. Harshita's sister Sonia Dabas said the family have been kept in the dark by the Northamptonshire police and have filed a lawsuit at the High Court in Delhi calling on the Indian government to step in. Mr Campbell said: "Twelve months ago, on November 14, 2024, a murder investigation was launched after 24-year-old Harshita was found dead in a vehicle in the Ilford area of London after being reported missing from her home in Corby, Northamptonshire. In March 2025, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that 24-year-old Pankaj Lamba, Harshita’s husband, should be charged with murder in relation to her death. "This is an exceptionally complex case and with criminal proceedings now active in the UK, we are unable to go into detail about the investigation at this time. However, we can confirm that the Indian authorities have been made aware through the appropriate channels of the charging decision. The investigation is very much ongoing and we remain as determined as ever to bring the person responsible for Harshita's death to justice. "Once again, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to Harshita's family, and we will continue to offer support as the investigation and our work to secure justice for Harshita and her family continues." In an emotional interview, Harshita's mother Sudesh Kumari has previously said she had spoken to her daughter just weeks before her murder. She said: “[Lamba] was making her life miserable. She said I will not go back to him. He will kill me.” Sudesh added that Harshita was “very simple, very innocent. She did not fight with people.”
