Delhi: Two months after their wedding and seven weeks after they sought police protection, a couple was shot dead in Hansi city in Haryana’s Hisar district Monday. While the couple later withdrew their request, police suspect it to be a case of ‘honour killing’.
The husband and wife, Tejveer Singh and Meena, were in Lala Hukum Chand Jain Park when two assailants on a motorcycle fired seven rounds at them. According to police, the couple died on the spot. Their bodies were later taken to the civil hospital for post-mortem.
Tejveer hailed from Badala village and Meena from Sultanpur village in Hansi. The couple eloped and got married on 22 April in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad after the girl’s family opposed the union, the police said.
“We suspect it to be a case of ‘honour killing’ as the woman’s family was unhappy with the marriage. They belonged to the same caste and were distant cousins. We are still investigating,” Maqsood Ahmed, Hansi Superintendent of Police, told ThePrint.
An FIR has been filed against unidentified persons under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Hansi City police station.
While the police informed both families about the killings, Tejveer’s kin arrived at the police station and crematorium, but the girl’s family did not.
During the investigation, it was found that the couple had applied for police protection on 1 May, shortly after their wedding.
“However, they withdrew their application after staying for three days at a safe house. We are investigating why they withdrew the application and where they were living,” said Ahmed.
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Third suspected ‘honour killing’ in Haryana in month
The murder is the third suspected ‘honour killing’ case in Haryana this June.
On 18 June, a minor allegedly shot dead his elder sister in Kaithal after landing at her in-laws’ house on the pretext of visiting her. Minutes after the killing, he went live on Instagram, boasted about it and surrendered to the police. According to the Kaithal police, the girl’s family had orchestrated the killing and instructed the minor to carry it out.
“The family instructed the minor brother to kill his sister due to lesser punishment under juvenile law,” Bijender Singh, investigating officer at Kaithal City police station, told ThePrint.
The deceased, Komal Rani, from the Gurjar community, had married Anil Rajput, who was from the Scheduled Castes (SC) community, four months ago.
In another case, 65-year-old Jagdish Singh was arrested on 19 June for allegedly strangling his daughter Sarvjeet Kaur to death for talking to a boy on the phone. He was accused of cremating her earlier in the month while claiming that she died of a heart attack.
Jagdish confessed to the police after social activist Kartar Singh raised suspicions over Sarvjeet’s death and a probe was launched into the matter.
Sarvjeet and her alleged boyfriend Karan belonged to the same caste, but the boy’s family was economically weaker and owned less land, Jagdish told the police.
‘Proper law needed’
Former Haryana home minister Anil Vij had said in February this year that the Haryana government recorded 24 suspected ‘honour killing’ cases between 2019 and 2023.
Activists, however, argue that the actual numbers are higher.
“There is a need for a proper law. Unless we have a proper law in place, such deaths won’t be documented correctly,” Reicha Tanwar, director of Women’s Studies Research Centre at Kurukshetra University told ThePrint.
In another case of ostracisation on account of marital ties that has come to light, residents of Bigopur village can’t access the bus stand, bank and the main road as they have been “cut off” by locals from neighbouring Dholera village. This was after Parveena from Dholera and Vikas from Bigopur eloped on 9 June. The couple belong to the same caste and economic background but are said to have fractured the bhaichara of the two villages.
The boy’s village is two kilometres from the girl’s and, according to villagers, the marriage has strained the “brotherhood” between the villages. “The marriage has maligned the name of our village and has breached the brotherhood. The couple were brother and sister, how can they marry?” asked Ram Singh Yadav of Dholera village, while speaking to ThePrint.
The couple is currently residing in a safe house under police protection in Narnaul.
However, villagers are demanding that the marriage be annulled by the panchayat and the girl returned, or else the ostracisation will continue.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Rural Haryana is at war with love marriage—brother shoots sister, boasts on Instagram with gun