Honour killing suspects in police custody

NEW DELHI - A court here Saturday sent three men arrested on charges of killing a couple and another woman in a case of suspected honour killing to five days police custody.

Metropolitan Magistrate Satish Kumar gave the ruling after the three - Mandeep Nagar, 23, Ankit Chaudhury, 22, and Nakul Khari, 21 - were presented in court.

They were handed over to Delhi Police till July 1.

On Friday, the court issued warrants against the three men who were arrested Thursday in Garh Mukteshwar, about 90 km from here in Ghaziabad, for the June 20 triple murder.

They are residents of Wazirpur village in Ashok Vihar in Delhi and were on the run.

According to police, the accused have confessed to murdering Monica, her husband Kuldeep and her cousin Shobha.

Gajraj Singh, counsel for the suspects, objected to the police plea seeking their remand and said the trio were falsely implicated.

“My clients were on vacation and came to know about this incident through the media. Since the murders were linked to their names, they were scared of coming back to the capital,” Singh told reporters outside the court.

“This case is based on circumstantial evidence and we will prove their innocence at the right stage,” said Singh, adding that there was no witness to the murders.

He said police do not have any specific and substantial evidence against the accused.

Opposing the police remand plea, Singh said: “Now, police want to create evidence and will come up again with some new kind of stories.”

Monica and Kuldeep belonged to different castes and their families were against their marriage. Shobha had allegedly helped her sister Khushbu, a model, to elope with a man from another caste.