Three wanted in honour killings arrested

GHAZIABAD - Three men on the run after murdering a couple and a young woman in a suspected case of honour killing were arrested Thursday from Garhmukteshwar in Uttar Pradesh, police said.

The three - Mandeep Nagar, Ankit Chaudhary and Nakul Khari - were held during checking in Garhmukteswar area, about 90 km from Delhi, Senior Superintendent of Police Raghubir Lal said. When a police team asked the trio travelling in a Hyundai I10 to stop, they tried to flee.

The three are residents of Wazirpur village in Ashok Vihar in Delhi.

They were fleeing after the triple murder of Kuldeep and Monica and Shobha June 20 in Ashok Vihar. They were reportedly monitoring the situation through television channels and newspapers. They hired a friend’s car and went to Dehradun from where they moved to Masoori and then went to Rishikesh.

Delhi Police had declared cash rewards of Rs.50,000 on each of them.

While Monica was Ankit’s sister, Shobha was the sibling of Mandeep. Khushbu, the younger sister of Shobha, had started modelling. She later eloped and married a person named Ravi Kumar from Jammu and Kashmir at an Arya Samaj temple.

Shobha also proposed modelling but her family, particularly her brother Mandeep rejected the idea. He shot at and killed Shobha, the SSP said.

Monica had married Kuldeep about four years back. Mandeep called Kuldeep on his mobile and when he arrived, Ankit fired three times on him.

They then went to Monica’s house and fired at her twice. They went to Rishikesh after committing the crimes and threw the pistol in the Ganga river, the police official said.

“We are handing them over to Delhi Police which would conduct further interrogation on them,” Lal said.

Ankit when produced before the media denied murdering his sister. “I only took a friend’s car after the murder. But I did not kill my sister. I got scared when my name was shown in the channels and papers everywhere so I was running for a safer place,” Ankit said.

Meanwhile, the uncle and cousin of Mandeep were taken into preventive custody for making provocative statements justifying the three murders.

“We have taken them into preventive custody under Sections 107 (security for keeping peace in the other case) and 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of a cognizable offence) of the Cr PC (Criminal Procedure Code),” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) N.S. Bundela.

According to the police, this was necessary as statements by the two justifying the crimes may instigate others, leading to other such crimes.

Talking to reporters Wednesday, accused Mandeep Nagar’s uncle Dharmaveer Nagar and his cousin Nitin justified the killing of Monica, her husband Kuldeep and Monica’s cousin Shobha.

“This (killing) is not at all wrong. What is wrong in it? Murder is wrong but this (killing) is socially the best thing that has been done,” Mandeep’s uncle had said.

Monica and Kuldeep belonged to different castes and their families did not approve of their marriage, while Shobha had helped her sister elope with a man belonging to another caste.