Biological, foster parents of honour killing victim held

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, August 10

The police have arrested the biological and foster parents of Mamta, the teenaged honour killing victim who was shot dead near the local Mini-secretariat on Wednesday. Karnal police SI Narender Kumar had also been shot dead.

Rohtak SP Jashandeep Singh Randhawa said Mamta’s foster parents Ramesh and Krishna as well as her biological parents Ramkesh and Sarita had been arrested and were being interrogated.

“While Mamta’s foster father Ramesh was present on the spot at the time of her murder, her biological father Ramkesh had conducted a recce of the area and her biological and foster mothers were involved in the murder conspiracy,” the SP said.

Ramesh of Shyam Colony in Rohtak had adopted Mamta, who was the daughter of his wife’s brother, Ramkesh of Gaddi Kheri village in the district.

Mamta’s body was still lying unclaimed. A local court had ordered that if nobody came forward to claim the body in the next 48 hours, it could be cremated by the local administration.

Haryana State Commission for Women chairperson Pratibha Suman asked the local police and administration not to hand over the girl’s body to her parents. She offered to get the last rites performed on behalf of the commission.

Dinesh, brother of Mamta’s husband Sombir, stated that they had not claimed her body as they were apprehensive of serious consequences in case they cremated her.

The family members of Sombir, the Dalit youth whom Mamta had married, maintained that they had warned Sombir against marrying the Jat girl as the consequences could be serious.

Sombir’s mother Saroj and Dinesh stated that they got to know about the affair of Sombir and Mamta the day before they eloped to get married. The family said Ramesh had been threatening them after their elopement.

Sombir of Singhpura village had married Mamta in August last year. The couple had then sought police protection. The scrutiny of their documents had revealed that Mamta’s Aadhaar card was forged and she was a minor at the time of her marriage.

The police said Mamta’s foster and biological parents had conspired to kill their daughter. Mamta’s cousin Mohit alias Manglu was also involved as he had called his accomplices from UP to murder the girl, the police said.