Priyanka (left) and Anju

Meerut, Nov. 18: A beauty queen faced TV cameras yesterday to say she had killed her parents and mutilated their bodies because they had abused her as a child and had now cut her out of their will.

“My father and brother always accused me of being my mother’s illegitimate child. There were times when I was ill but was forced to carry out daily kitchen chores and thrashed black and blue for even small mistakes,” former Miss Meerut Priyanka Choudhry, 23, said after her arrest.

Priyanka, the toast of Meerut after her 2005 triumph till she went away to Delhi to study at a polytechnic, had told the pageant audience in her victory speech: “I’m here because of my mother.”

Yesterday she said her mother neglected her. She said that on November 10, when she came to know about her parents’ decision to leave everything to elder brother Gaurav, a Bangalore-based engineer, she killed them both.

Sources said Priyanka’s mother Santosh and father Premveer, a retired junior engineer, had long cotton pyjamas stuffed deep inside their throats, their fingers were mutilated and Premveer’s head was smashed, apparently with a hammer.

Priyanka had come down to Meerut on November 1 with Anju, who was her hostel roommate in Delhi before they both moved to Anju’s home in Amroha in March. In Meerut, instead of putting up at the Choudhry home, they rented a house 10km away — a move that later aroused police suspicion.

Both women have been arrested, charged with the double murder and sent to 14 days’ judicial custody.

The police said Gaurav had complained that some documents had gone missing from the Choudhry home after the murders. A raid on the rented apartment threw up fixed deposit receipts worth over Rs 6 lakh, Rs 50,000 in cash and Premveer’s official will.

Sarla Singh, who lives next door to the Choudhrys, said Priyanka had once been the star of every party or event in the locality. “She was a polite and happy girl. In the 10 years I have been their neighbour, I never saw or heard a fight or even raised voices. But you never know what really happens inside a house.”

Priyanka’s paternal aunt Prabha Devi, a Meerut resident, blamed Anju. “Priyanka’s behaviour changed after she met Anju a year ago. She seemed unable to move a limb without Anju’s instructions.”

She claimed Gaurav loved his sister, paid her college fees and had bought her a scooty. He was to marry on December 12.

Before the cameras, Priyanka looked confident and aggressive. She looked at her companion for support now and then.

She said she had married Anju’s brother Ajendra in April, five years her junior, though both families were against the relationship. However, soon after the marriage, she had filed a complaint with the National Commission for Women alleging Ajendra and his uncle had tried to rape her.