Girl raped, husband murdered for marrying in the same caste

A girl's husband was killed by her brother, and people from her village raped her because she had married within her caste. And this happened not in the hinterlands but in Delhi.

The police have arrested Daya Singh, 50, Sandeep, 23, Inderjeet Singh, 19, and Krishan, 19, from Sonepat in Haryana on Monday, for murdering Virender Singh, 24, in Narela area of Outer Delhi last week and taking his body to Sonepat, where it was tied with a heavy stone and dumped in a canal.

Daya Singh has served for a brief period in the Army. Two of the four accused also allegedly raped the girl.

The police said Virender's wife complained to the Narela police that her husband was murdered by her family members in connivance with two other men of their village.

"The reason behind the killing was a love affair and marriage between her and Virender, both belonging to the same caste and village Mahara," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer Delhi) Atul Katiyar.

The couple fell in love when they were in school. Both of them wanted to get married. Though the families were not in favour, in 2006 they fled from their village and got married. A case of kidnapping was registered and later Virender was arrested and sent to jail. When Virender was in jail, the girl was forcibly married off to one Jaipal, who later began abusing her after he came to know about her relationship with Virender.

"The girl came back as the abuses increased and started living with Virender in Samaipur Badli in Delhi. Later both of them got married at Chandigarh. Then they shifted to Samalkha," Katiyar said.

On October 17, the couple went to visit Sandeep in Narela where Inderjeet had invited them for Diwali celebrations. "But they were not aware that a plot was hatched by Singh in connivance with Inderjeet and others to kill Virender. Later, Singh reached Sandeep's house along with his son and mercilessly beat up Virender and strangled him," Katiyar said. The girl was allegedly raped by Sandeep and Inderjeet there.