Girl, lover victims of honour killing

Enraged over her growing intimacy with a boy, family members of a teenaged girl mercilessly beat the couple and then burnt them alive in a field in this satellite town of Delhi. A report by Kapil Datta.

Enraged over her growing intimacy with a boy, family members of a teenaged girl mercilessly beat the couple and then burnt them alive in a field in this satellite town of Delhi on Thursday, the police said.

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The half-burnt bodies of the two were recovered from a maize field in Bair village. Police said the girl’s father and other family members carried out the killings. “Rekha (17) was studying in Class X and the boy in Class XI in the same school,” said OP Choudhary of the Kakode Police Station.

According to police, Rekha, the daughter of Gulab Singh Jatav, was in love with Sonu (19), the son of Raju Khatik, who lived nearby. At about 11.30 am, Rekha asked Sonu to join her in her father’s field where she had gone to collect fodder for the cattle.

“Around 11.30 am, the girl’s father Gulab Singh saw them in “objectionable position” in the fields. He strangulated the girl with a chunni and then killed the boy too. Members of her family had joined him. They then put maize husk on the bodies and set it ablaze. An unknown caller alerted the police,” he said. “It is a case honour killing.”

The father of the boy has filed a police complaint accusing the family of Rekha of brutally killing the lovers. The police have registered a case against the girl’s family, who have fled the village.

“We have seized the bodies for post mortem and are trying to arrest the offenders,” the police official said.