A day after their misplaced sense of honour drove them to kill their teenage daughter and her fiancé, Asha Saini’s father, Suraj Kumar Saini, and uncle Om Prakash have no regrets.
“On being asked why they took the drastic step, Saini and Om Prakash said Asha had left them no alternative,”
said a senior police officer requesting anonymity. “They said Asha’s deed frustrated them and the family didn’t regret killing them.”
Asha Saini and Yogesh Kumar — both 19-year-olds from Gokulpuri — were tortured for four hours and electrocuted to death on Monday at Prakash’s Swarup Nagar residence.
Asha had been warned by her family to stay away from Yogesh because he was a cab driver and belonged to a different caste.
On Tuesday, as Yogesh’s sister Renu stood outside the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial hospital the mortuary for her brother’s body, Asha’s relatives — who claimed they were not involved in the murders — stood close by, looking away from Renu’s direction. They had come to claim Asha’s body.
“They just stood outside the mortuary as we waited for the hospital authorities to hand over Yogesh and Asha’s bodies,” Renu said. “I didn’t talk to them and they didn’t talk to me. We waited in silence for three hours.”
The Sainis’ neighbours in Gokulpuri expressed shock at the horrific murder committed by the “good people”.
“God knows what came over them on Sunday. They were such good people,” said Vishnu Sharma (36), who runs a provision store near the Sainis’ home residence. “I’ve known the Sainis for two years. They never got into fights. I couldn’t believe the story about Asha’s brutal murder till I saw them on television this morning.”
Jainarayan Singh (40), another neighbour said, “Asha’s mother, Maya is a very hardworking woman. She used to spend most of her day hard at work at the vegetable market to make enough money for her daughters’ weddings. It’s very hard to believe the same woman murdered one of them just because the boy’s caste was a factor.”