Thaindian News

Narwana (Haryana), July 23 (IANS) Tension gripped some villages in Haryana’s Jind district Thursday following the “honour killing” of a 21-year-old man who had married against the wishes of his community.
Police were yet to make any arrest till late Thursday, a day after Ved Pal was lynched by residents of his wife’s village, Singhwal, near this town of Haryana’s Jind district, 160 km from Chandigarh.

The victim was attacked when he had gone to the village to bring back his wife Sonia Wednesday. The young couple had got married March this year.

“We convinced the villagers to disclose the identity and whereabouts of the culprits,” Mohammed Shayin, deputy commissioner of Jind, told IANS.

“We would also record the statement of the girl (deceased’s wife) in the court,” he added.

Court warrant officer Suraj Bhan, who had gone with the victim Wednesday night was, however, not attacked by the villagers though he suffered injuries due to a fall during the attack, Jind district police chief Satheesh Balan told IANS.

There were at least 15 policemen accompanying the victim and the court warrant officer but the villagers surrounded the victim, who tried to escape, and lynched him. The accompanying policemen fled from the spot with the court officer.

The villagers did not allow anyone to take the body of the victim till late Wednesday night and displayed it at the village crossing.

“We have removed the body from there and a postmortem is being conducted (at Jind). We have registered a case of murder against the girl’s family and some other unknown villagers,” Balan said.

Police officials said they were trying to trace the girl and her family.

The district administration and police rushed reinforcements to the village and nearby areas dominated by the Jat community to control the situation following the murder.

The family of the victim said they would seek revenge for his murder. The victim belonged to Mataur village in Kaithal district.

Ved Pal had married Sonia, 18, in March this year against the wishes of her family. Her family and villagers opposed the marriage saying that both belonged to the same ‘gotra’ (clan) and were hence brother and sister.

The killing of Ved Pal comes even as the administration in another Haryana district, Jhajjar, is grappling with a case of a village council (panchayat) ordering the ouster of a family of a young couple in Dharana village who also married within the same gotra.

So-called honour killings are not new in Haryana, especially in areas dominated by the Jat community.

In June 2007, the bodies of a young couple, Manoj and Babli, were recovered from a canal in Kaithal district after they were murdered and thrown into the canal by relatives of the girl.

In Karnal district last year, Jasbir Singh, 27, and his companion Sunita, who was six months pregnant, were murdered after being strangled in their village. The girl’s family was opposed to their daughter, a divorcee, living with Jasbir.

The family threw the bodies of the couple outside their house to send a message to other villagers that going against wishes of the community and family would not be tolerated.