Another suspected honour killing in Haryana

HISAR - In another case of suspected honour killing, a 28-year-old man was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a hotel room in this Haryana district, police said Saturday.

According to police, the deceased was identified as Anup Kumar, who was working as a computer operator in a local school.

He had gone to the Neelkanth hotel here Thursday night. Hotel staff found his body lying in a pool of blood Friday.

Anup’s father Cheteshwar Prasad, in a complaint to the police, has accused his son’s father-in-law of killing him.

“On the basis of the statement of the father of the deceased, we have registered a case against unknown persons. Our investigation is on and very soon we will arrest the accused behind this. We need some time and it would be too early to conclude that it was an honour killing case,” Pankaj Nain, investigating officer of the case, told IANS Saturday.

“Anup was murdered with a sharp-edged weapon and we are also taking the help of forensic experts to solve this case,” he added.

Police sources said that Anup had married Rubina, a resident of Jaipur, in November last year against the wishes of her family members.

Rubina’s family members were also putting pressure on Anup to embrace Islam but he refused to do so and this had prompted this killing, the sources said.

Haryana is infamous for notorious honour killings involving young boys and girls.

A few days ago, a teenaged couple was murdered in a village in Bhiwani district by the girl’s family as the boy and girl, who were from a different gotra (sub-caste), were planning to marry.

In March, a court in Karnal had awarded the death sentence to five people for the honour killing of a young couple who had married in 2007 against the wishes of their community.