Family kills pregnant daughter, her lover

KILLED OVER LOVE: The family displayed the bodies of the young couple to an applauding village audience.

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New Delhi: A man strangled his pregnant daughter and her lover and put their bodies on display to an applauding village in Haryana on Friday.

Twenty-seven-year-old Jasdev Singh and his childhood sweetheart Sunita, who was six-months pregnant, belonged to Karnal village — an area dominated by the Jat community — which considers people from the same village as siblings.

The two of them secretly continued their affair even after Sunita was married.

Last year, Sunita eloped with Jasdev. However, when Sunita's family finally found them and got to know that she was pregnant, they beat up the couple and strangled them to death, police officials said.

After committing the murder, the family threw the bodies of the young couple outside their house to send a message to the applauding village audience that going against the wishes of the community and the family will not be tolerated.

Shortly after, Sunita’s brother went to the local police station and reported their crime.

Sunita's family remained unrepentant after committing the crime. Her mother Roshni Devi justified the action of her family, saying that the family had “saved its reputation”.

“We were there and so were the boy's parents. We had warned her before, but she didn't heed our words, so we finished her off,” she said.

Honour killings are not unusual in Haryana villages. Human rights lawyer, Meenakshi Lehki says unless the feudalistic mindset of the villagers is not changed, such incidents will continue to take place.

“What happened was definitely wrong. We have heard of a feudal mindset and honour killings in villages. It’s different in the cities, but in the village this must have been humiliating for the father. One cannot justify it. We are dealing with a feudalistic mindset here,” Meenakshi Lekhi stated.