In what is being hailed as the first ever honour killing conviction in Haryana,the Karnal Sessions Court on March 25 held six residents of Karora village guilty of a gruesome double murder. The sentencing will take place tomorrow.
In April 2007,Manoj,24,and Babli,18,had drawn the ire of Karoras khap panchayat for eloping to Chandigarh and getting married. They belonged to the same gotra,Berwal,and in the eyes of the khap there is no sin greater than that.
A few months later,on June 15,the couple were heading to Karnal after making a court appearance at Kaithal when they were kidnapped from a bus by seven people some of them Bablis relatives,and at least one khap member.
What happened next is difficult to ascertain. Some reports said they were beaten to death,others maintained that they were forced to consume poison. Their bodies were later thrown into a local canal.
On March 25 this year,the court held Bablis brother,Suresh,her uncles,Rajender and Baru Ram,her cousins,Gurdev and Satish,and village strongman,Ganga Raj,who had called the khap panchayat,guilty of the murders.
Chandrapati Berwal a 55-year-old widow and mother of four says she did not realise till 10 days later that her son and daughter-in-law had been killed. I went to Chandigarh,to Karnal,to Kaithal to look for them,but could not find them anywhere. It was only 10 days later that my sisters son found out that Manoj had been murdered, she says. I had no idea that they had called a panchayat after my son got married…
Unable to identify the two bodies,the police had cremated both Manoj and Babli. It was only when the case began to draw media attention that the Kaithal police made arrests.
For the last three years,my life has been at a standstill. I had convinced myself that I would not be able to move on till my son got justice, Chandrapati says.
Despite threats,abuse and social boycott by the rest of the village,she refused to either withdraw from the case or compromise. I dont need any of these villagers anyway, she says. After they killed my son,I dont even want to look at them.
For the past couple of years,a police official has been at her door,guarding her round the clock. The police dont underestimate the threat. The situation in this village can get volatile at any time. There have been threats and there is no saying when this house might be attacked, a police official on duty says.
While she is happy at the conviction,Chandrapati fears the real culprits may get away. Only the man who called the panchayat has been arrested. What about the other khap panchayat members? she asks.
Karoras Pradhan Dharamveer,who controls the local panchayat,refused to entertain any questions from The Indian Express.
However,Chandrapati hopes the court order will encourage the authorities to take aggressive action and end the system of khap panchayats. They do not mete out justice anymore,as khaps were supposed to, she says. Instead they go around killing our children.
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