JOIN USIn an apparent case of honor killing, a 21-year-old youth was hacked to death with an axe by the father and grandfather of a girl the victim was in a relationship with.
The murder took place in outer Delhi’s Begumpur on Saturday. Police have arrested the girl’s father and grandfather for the murder and recovered the weapon of offence and the bloodstained clothes worn by them during the murder.
Suspects Bharat Singh Kataria, 36, and his 66-year-old father Mahendra Singh Kataria were against the relationship between Bharat’s daughter and the victim Sushil.
They decided to kill him when their repeated warnings to Sushil to keep away from the girl went unheeded.
Police said the case came to fore on Saturday when police received a call regarding the murder of a man at his home near Barwala Road in Begumpur. Sushil was found hacked with a sharp, heavy weapon.
During the initial probe, police suspected Sushil’s extended family members as the two families were involved in a longstanding dispute.
However, the rival family’s role in the murder could not be established.
“We then began probing other possibilities during which we learnt that Sushil was in a relationship with a girl in his neighbourhood. The girl’s parents opposed to this relationship,” said police on Thursday.
The girl was questioned and she revealed that she was with Sushil on Saturday night.
Her family members, in particular her father and grandfather, were very angry when they learnt about their secret meeting.
The girl’s father and grandfather were picked for questioning.
They initially claimed innocence, but broke down during sustained interrogation and confessed to their crime, said police.
“They wanted to take revenge as Sushil was not paying any heed to their repeated warnings to keep away from the girl,” police added.
The two allegedly planned to eliminate Sushil that night. They climbed over a wall to enter Sushil’s home and hacked him with an axe when he was asleep.
Having killed Sushil, the father and son removed their bloodstained clothes and put on fresh clothes which they had carried along.
They then drove away in their Hyundai Accent car to dispose the clothes and axe at different locations in west Delhi. Mahendra ran a property business as well as a marriage bureau in Begumpur.
He is also the pradhan (head) of the locality and readily participated in social activities in the area, said police. His son assisted him in the business.