From Bareily to Nalgonda: Honour killing still haunt Young Inter-caste couples
The venom of ‘Honour Killing’ has again found its roots in the Indian system as a daughter of an Uttar Pradesh BJP legislator has alleged that her life is in danger from her father after she married a Dalit man and asked the police for security.
Sakshi Misra (23), daughter of Rajesh Misra, the MLA from Bithari Chainpur in Bareilly district, uploaded a video on social media on Wednesday where she has apprehended threat to her life from her father, brother and an associate, and urged the Bareilly senior superintendent of police to extend security to them.
Such episodes of Honour killing is very frequent in the Indian subcontinent and especially in the northern parts of India in states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar etc. Asper a 2018 report published in the Times of India, more than 250 people died in India in the name of honor killing. The 2015 data saw a 796% increase from the 2014 data. According to the report, 28 people died of Honor killing in 2014 which got increased to 251 in 2015 however it dropped down to 77 in 2016.
Nitish Katara Murder Case:
On an evening of 17 February 2012 when the couple attended a common friend’s wedding where Bharti’s brother Vikas and his cousin Vishal were present. Then Yadav’s took Katara for a ride from which he never returned. However, his body was found three days later near a highway. Nitish was brutally beaten with hammer and was set on fire by pouring diesel on him. After years of judicial fight, the killers were sentenced to a life term, however, Bharti underpressure of her family never accepted in the court that she was in a relationship with Katara.
Manoj-Babli case: The Manoj-Babli case is a landmark case in the Indian Judicial system. The couple who hailed from the Karora village in Kaithal district of Haryana was murdered by Babli’s family for marrying in the same Gotra. The family earlier alleged that Manoj had kidnapped Babli and filed a police complaint regarding this. However after the ordered of Khap Panchayat, the family traced the couple kidnapped the couple from a Bus.
The family forced Manoj to accept Babli as a sister. After the couple refused, the family forcefully fed Babli pesticide and hanged Manoj. They wrapped the couple bodies in a gunny sack and dumped them in the canal in Hisar District. The police found their mutilated bodies after nine days.
Ankit Saxena Murder Case: Shehzadi and Ankit had known each other since she was in Class 4, and they fell in love when she was in Class 11. They only met up twice in their three-year relationship. However, they would always be on the phone. As fate has it, there came thorns along the smooth road. Her parents found out about Ankit and disapproved. They beat her up and forced her to marry someone 10 years older. When nothing worked, they declared she would have to move to their village in Saharanpur and get married.
Ankit Saxena
Shehzadi decided to leave home and move away. She called Ankit to meet her at Tagore Garden metro station. He promised to meet, only to never turn up. Ankit was killed by Shehzadi’s parents and her maternal uncle in broad daylight in Delhi on February 1, 2018.
Pranay Murder Case: In September 2018, a Dalit man was murder in Telangana’s Nagalkonda district in front of his own wife while coming out of the hospital after wife’s routine pregnancy checkup. 23-year-old Pranay Kumar, a Dalit Christian had married Amrutha Varshini, an upper caste Hindu woman against their the girl’s family who opposed Kumar’s caste and religion.
Pranay Kumar with Amrutha Varshini,
Amruta’s father according to the police, Amrutha’s father Maruti Rao had agreed to gave 1.13 crore to assailants to murder Pranay Kumar because they were unhappy that she married a person from a different religion against their wish.
The attack was captured on CCTV cameras installed in the hospital premises. The footage shows that as Pranay was walking out of the hospital with his pregnant wife, the assailant attacked him with a machete from behind, killing him on the spot.
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