Death for Hisar honour killing

Deepender Deswal
Tribune News Service
Hisar, December 5

A district court today awarded death sentence to a man for killing his sister in February 2017 for marrying outside the caste at Juglan village here three years ago. Calling it the rarest of rare case, the court said “honour killing comes in the category of cool-minded and well-planned murder”.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge Dr Pankaj had convicted Ashok Kumar on November 29 on charges of murder and destruction of evidence.

On August 8, 2015, victim Kiran Rani from the Jat community had married Rohtash Saini, a resident of Sishwal village, at Sanathan Dharam Charitable Trust, Hisar. Both were students at the time. After the marriage, Kiran went to stay with her parents.

In 2017, Trust president Sanjay Chauhan got to know that Kiran’s body was cremated in the village. Chauhan informed Rohtash, who filed a complaint with the police suspecting it to be a murder by the girl’s family.

After registering a case on February 14, 2017, the police collected ash samples from the cremation ground.

The accused apparently killed his sister and secretly cremated the body. He later produced a note to pass it off as suicide. To corroborate the murder theory, Chauhan produced a copy of the Trust’s proceedings book in which the victim wrote that “she was going home and if she fails to contact her husband, it may be inferred that there is a threat to her life”.

Holding the accused guilty on several accounts, the court said the accused committed the murder for the “false pride of the family”.

In the order, the judge said: “There is overwhelming circumstantial evidence to show that the accused committed the crime as he felt he was dishonoured by his sister. The killing is only because of inter-caste marriage… there is also somewhere a social breach of trust as it is a murder by the real brother.”

It said the sentence was subject to confirmation by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.