Panchayat threat to lovers in Greater Noida

GREATER NOIDA - Some rural areas of Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida township were tense Monday after a village panchayat issued shoot-at-sight orders against two lovers belonging to different castes, police said, adding that security in the village had been beefed up.

The panchayat of village Daula-Razpura has issued the orders against Sanjay and Preeti, both in their mid-20s. Panchayats of a few villages nearby have also supported the diktat.

“We have information that the boy and the girl were not allowed to marry so they had fled the village. The Dalit community men are under fear since the village is dominated by Brahmins. We shall provide them security,” said Superintendent of Police (Greater Noida) S.K. Verma.

The lovers are untraceable since June 24, police said.

Sanjay, a Dalit, and Preeti, a Brahmin, fell in love while they were studying in a college in Dadri two years ago, police said.

They completed their graduation from the college and started teaching in a private public school there, police said.

They were sacked from the school when the school management came to know that both were in love but had not married so far on account of facing a bitter opposition from the girl’s family, police said.

According to police, the girl reportedly took shelter in her maternal uncle’s house in Sehatpur while the boy remained untraceable. But the girl had to leave the village after her hide became public.

In the meantime, the village panchayats of Maycha, Azalpur and Singhawali have also endorsed the ordered to shoot them.