Meeting between two families to arrange marriage ends in a murder

A meeting between two families to discuss a marriage proposal took a turn for the worse when the father of prospective groom allegedly stabbed the father of the prospective bride after he refused the alliance in Sohna on Thursday evening.

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Police said the victim was rushed to a government hospital in Sohna, where he died during treatment.

Police said the victim, 48-year-old Bablu, his wife Kamlesh, their daughter and sons Ajay and Sunny had gone to a man named Rishalu’s house at around 7pm.Rishalu’s brother-in-law Ashok had been playing matchmaker between Bablu’s daughter and Rishalu’s younger brother Pappu’s son and convinced the families to meet on Thursday. Police withheld the name of the daughter and son suspecting them to be minors.

The negotiations, police said, had been going on for six months and that Pappu was very interested in the alliance.

Sunder Pal, in-charge, Fauwara Chowk police post, Sohna, said, “During the discussion, Bablu said that he was not in favour of the alliance since both were families were related through marriage, which would render this alliance as a marriage between near-cousins. Pappu took offence to this and got into a heated exchange with him. The argument escalated into a scuffle and in the melee, Pappu picked up a knife and stabbed Bablu in the stomach twice.”

Police said the victim was rushed to a government hospital in Sohna, where he died during treatment. Police have booked five people -- Pappu and his wife Guddi, Rishalu and his wife Suman, and Ashok-- in the case under sections 302 (murder), among others, of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Sohna City police station .

Police said according to eyewitnesses, Pappu was inebriated at the time of the incident and acted in ‘a fit of rage’. In the FIR, Bablu’s son, Ajay, said, “After stabbing my father, they all fled from the house. We rushed my father to the civil hospital in Sohna, where he died during treatment.”

Police said the suspects were absconding. The victim’s body was handed over to the family after the post-mortem on Friday and they have gone to their native village in Bharatpur, Rajasthan for the last rites, said police.