Stop honour killings, Cong tells Haryana

Concerned over the growing cases of ‘honour killing’ in Haryana, the Congress has asked the state to take all steps to prevent recurrence of such incidents.

Concerned over the growing cases of ‘honour killing’ in Haryana, the Congress has asked the state to take all steps to prevent recurrence of such incidents.

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The immediate provocation for party in-charge in Haryana BK Hariprasad to write a letter to chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was a “brutal murder” of a teenager recently in Jui village of Bhiwani district.

He also shot off another letter to state excise minister Kiran Choudhary, who is an MLA from Tosham constituency in Bhiwani, to ensure justice to the victim’s family.

Anup Kumar, son of Pawan Kumar, a class XII student and a resident of Haluvas village in Bhiwani district had reportedly been abducted and later murdered in January.

The police later registered a case of murder against unknown people but suspected that his friendship with a girl of the same village and same caste could have been the reason.

This is not the first time that the central leadership has taken exception to caste-related violence in Haryana, infamous for notorious ‘honour killings’.

Last year, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had written a letter to Hooda expressing concern about such incidents. She had also demanded a report on the violence against Dalits at Mirchpur village in Hisar district on April 21, 2010 and also directed Hooda to take stringent action against the accused.

Hooda has come under severe criticism from within the Congress for his ‘softness’ on khap panchayats, which have been ordering ‘honour killings’.

His government has opposed the Centre’s move to amend existing laws to curb the growing menace of ‘honour killings’.

Out of the five states most-affected by ‘honour killings’, Haryana is the only one that has opposed changes in the criminal laws, including booking all members of a gathering that orders such killings under murder charge, along with those who actually commit the crime.