Neelam’s family had initially refused to claim the body since she had eloped with Abbas and converted to Islam. Her suicide note, recovered by the police, had sought burial as per Islamic rites.

Abbas had cited financial crunch and threats by two moneylenders — Sanjeev Sharma and Ramesh — as the reason for the decision to enter into the “suicide pact” with Neelam. He is presently recuperating at AIIMS. Police suspect his injuries are superficial.

Police sources said after postmortem, Neelam and the child’s bodies were handed over to her parents, who live in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad. Her father Shivnath Singh, 65, today said, “We wanted to fulfil my daughter’s last wish, so we buried her as per Shia rites.” Singh, a retired professor of a university in Uttar Pradesh, has a son, who lives separately.

In her suicide note, Neelam had also asked one Akbar Hussain to perform the last rites as per Islamic rites but Hussain had refused to claim the body and perform the rites.