By IANS
Kaithal (Haryana) : The honour killing of a newly married couple in Haryana because they belonged to the same "gotra" (clan) may have shocked many but the villagers are not ashamed of the heinous crime.
Manoj, 23, and Babli, 19, of Karoran village near Kaithal town, 120 km from state capital Chandigarh, who eloped to get married May 18, could not even complete a month of married life.
Babli's relatives, seeking to punish the couple for getting married, chased them to Karnal city June 15.
The young couple were brutally murdered and thrown into an irrigation canal. It was only when the two bodies were recovered in the canal near Hissar that police swung into action.
All this happened despite the fact that the couple had sought protection from the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh and the court had directed the Haryana police to provide them with security.
The police arrested the taxi driver who drove the murderers 20 June and information provided by him led to the arrest of five of the six accused in this case, Karnal's district police chief A.S. Chawla said.
The killers, now in police custody, say they have done the right thing. "They brought shame on our community. Our action will set an example for others," said one of the accused.
Other villagers in Karoran feel the same way. They neither regret the killing nor are remorseful about it.
"The couple got what they deserved. Within their gotra, they were like brother and sister. They made an unholy alliance by getting married," a villager said.
By Hindu custom, people who share the same gotra are considered to have descended from the same ancestors from the Vedic age.
"This (the marriage) cannot be tolerated," the villager added. "I think no one in this village will speak against the killing."
He is probably right. Except Manoj's mother Chandrapati, who with her family has been ostracised by the entire village and community, no one is ready to support the couple even in their death.
"I want the murder accused to be hanged. They had no business to interfere with the lives of the couple. They (villagers) are now targeting my family," said Chandrapati, a widow.
The village panchayat has directed residents to not even speak to Mnaoj's family. Even the milk supply to their house has been discontinued.
It is not the first time that Haryana's rigid community beliefs have come in the way of couples tying the knot. In the last few years, village bodies – called khap panchayats in Jat dominated rural Haryana – have given diktats against marriages within the same "gotra".
The Bhupinder Singh Hooda government has never taken any action against the extra-constitutional acts of these panchayats and community leaders taking the law into their own hands.