22-yr-old ‘killed for honour’ in Ghaziabad, police hunt for missing girl
Ghaziabad: In a case of alleged honour killing, a 22-year-old tailor from Rajasthan who eloped with an upper caste girl was murdered by her family last month. The body of the man was found near an under-construction building at Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad on May 3.
The tailor, Vishal, was abducted on May 2 from his cousin’s home in Uttam Nagar allegedly by the girl’s family who took him to the building and beat him mercilessly before throwing him down from the 12th floor. The girl’s uncle was the builder of the same building, police said.
The alleged honour killing reportedly happened in front of the girl, a minor, who is untraceable since that day. The crime was allegedly executed by her father, uncle and cousin.
Investigators fear for her life, though they have information that she is alive.
The man belonged to a family of tailors at Burara village in Rajasthan’s Sikar and the 17-year-old girl is a Brahmin, police said. The suspects have been evading law even as the Ghaziabad Police registered a zero FIR and transferred the case to Delhi Police after a month-long probe.
The west Delhi Police are now hunting for the suspects since the honour killing conspiracy allegedly started from the house of Vishal’s cousin where the young couple had taken shelter after eloping from their village on April 29.
Deependra Pathak, joint commissioner of police (southwestern range), said, “We initiated our probe immediately after the case was transferred to us from Ghaziabad. Our priority is to safely recover the girl and arrest her family members who were behind the planned murder of Vishal. Raids are being conducted.”
A senior police officer privy to the probe said the two were seeing each other for a long time and wanted to get married. They knew their families would never approve of the relationship as they not only belonged to the same village but were from different castes. “The girl’s family is influential in the village,” said the officer.
On April 29, the couple eloped and reached Vishal’s cousin’s home in Uttam Nagar on May 1. His cousin panicked when they told her about their plan. She informed her father, a tailor in north Delhi’s Pitampura, who reported the matter to Vishal’s father, Ramesh, a tailor in Kolkata.
Vishal’s family then informed the girl’s family and asked them to reach Delhi to resolve the issue amicably.
“The girl’s family convinced Vishal and his family members that they will allow him to marry the girl once she turns 18. His family was convinced and allowed the girl’s family to take the couple back home. But instead of taking them to their village, they took them to the under-construction building and murdered Vishal,” the officer said.
Police said, Vishal’s body was identified after the Ghaziabad Police found his mobile phone in his pocket and contacted his family.
Source: Hindustan Time
