M A I N   N E W S

Boy hacked to death for marrying out of caste
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

Hoshiarpur, November 25
Relatives of Rajput girl, who dared to marry a Jat boy against their wishes, allegedly hacked him to death in a bazar of the nearby Jahankhelan village today. They even sent his arm to one of his relatives, before fleeing from the scene of the crime.

Everyone in the bazar was stunned when they saw some youths, armed with swords, running after another youth around 8.45 a.m. But none of them could ever imagine that they would cut him into pieces to punish him for marrying their niece about two months back.

After committing the gruesome crime, they managed to escape. The Hoshiarpur police said its raiding parties were after the accused and would nab them soon. Interestingly, the crime was committed about half a kilometre from the Police Training Centre in the village.

Inquiries revealed that the Rajput girl, Geeta, who was putting up with her maternal grandmother here since her parents were living in Jammu and Kashmir, continued her relationship with Jasbir Singh ‘‘Aallo’’ of the same village against the wishes of her maternal uncles. They also got married in a court, leading to tension between Rajputs and Jats in the village.

Geeta’s maternal uncles and other relatives allegedly threatened the boy with dire consequences, due to which he left the village sometime back.

Residents, on the condition of anonymity, said Jasbir used to come to the village to meet his wife. Even today, he had come to meet Geeta and was returning to his house after seeing off some relatives at the Jahankhelan bus stand when he was cornered by her relatives, including Subhash Singh “Bagga”, Daljit “Jeeta”, and Parbhat “Jagga”.

They caught hold of him and allegedly murdered him in cold blood.

As if this was not enough, they also chopped off one of his arms and sent it to his aunt’s house in the same village. In her complaint with the Sadar police station, Geeta said she had married Jasbir of her own free will. She named four persons in an FIR registered under Sections 302, 34 of the IPC.

Mr Lok Nath, SSP, said police parties had been sent to nab the accused. Refuting that the incident was a caste clash, he said it was an ‘‘individual crime’’.