In a macabre incident of honour killing in Haryana, a man troubled by his sister’s affair with a youth hacked both of them to death in village Ajayab on Tuesday.

Showing no remorse over the heinous act, the accused Jai Bhagwan himself informed the police about the crime and kept sitting beside the corpses till the police came to arrest him. While being taken away by the police, he boasted he had saved the family honour by removing the “slur” on its name.

His 20-year old sister, Anita, eloped with Sonu (21) of the neighbouring Bharain village about two weeks ago. The eyewitnesses said the relationship between the two was not acceptable to either of the families since both hailed from different castes.

They said that Jai Bhagwan had even warned Sonu many times to stay away from his sister.

Anita’s family had lodged a complaint with the police after her disappearance two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, she reportedly rang up her family from the nearby district town of Rohtak and informed them about her decision to marry Sonu. She also urged the family to help her get some documents needed to get the marriage registered at the local court.

At this, her brother Jai Bhagwan ostensibly softened up to her sister and offered to help.

A village elder, Rohtas Singh said that Jai Bhagwan asked his sister to wait for him to reach Rohtak and assured that he would himself persuade their parents for the match after reaching their native village.

However, as soon as Anita and Sonu landed in the village accompanied by Jai Bhagwan, the latter chopped off their heads with an axe on a village street in full view of many villagers.

Honour killings have been a bitter reality in many parts of Haryana where caste-lines are firmly drawn and are considered sacrosanct. Inter-caste matches are frowned upon by caste clans in the state still governed by a medieval mind-set and a patriarchal system of justice in the form of kangaroo courts.