Kaithal ‘honour’ killing: Komal’s brother fired at me too, says husband

Tribune News Service

Geetanjali Gayatri

Chandigarh, June 20

When college sweethearts Komal and Anil Kumar decided to marry in February this year after a four-year romance, they were looking for a “happily ever after” but fate had other plans, as did Komal’s family.

Editorial: ‘Honour’ killing

She died a gory death, gunned down by her brother, now arrested, at her in-laws’ place in Kaithal for marrying outside her caste five months after she tied the knot with Anil. Komal was a Gujjar while Anil belonged to the SC community. Speaking to The Tribune, Anil, shaken by yesterday’s turn of events, recounted the horror that unfolded in a matter of 30 minutes. Komal breathed her last in Anil’s arms.

Mother held, sent to judicial custody

• The police have arrested Komal’s mother Amita for her alleged involvement in the ‘honour’ killing case
• Amita was involved in the conspiracy, say the police
• Amita’s 17-year-old son allegedly killed Komal and surrendered after committing the crime

“I was on the terrace when I heard gunshot sounds followed by heart-wrenching screams. I ran down the stairs to the first floor and saw Komal’s brother running out of the house, a gun in hand. He tried to fire at me but missed. I hurled a few bricks lying nearby at him before running to where I had left Komal with him,” he says.

Stunned to see the blood-splattered floor where Komal, his mother and his sister lay, Anil rushed to scoop up his wife. “I had barely held her in my arms when she breathed her last. My mother is in hospital with a bullet embedded in her while my sister hurt her arm.

They are fine. That was not how our love story was supposed to end,” he rued.

Ever since they got married, Komal’s family would spare no chance to use abusive language or threaten the newly-weds with dire consequences. “We realised they wouldn’t shy away from killing us and moved to a safe house for runaway couples till I met with an accident and was forced to come back home in Kaithal two months ago,” Anil maintains. A number of panchayats were held to urge Anil to allow Komal’s family to visit their daughter. “The panchayat assured us that the family wanted access to Komal only to ensure she was happy. However, each time they would come, they would hurl the choicest of abuses and threaten to kill all of us. However, we did not ever suspect that they would conspire to kill us at my place,” he says between sobs.

Komal’s family members would take turns dropping by to keep up the pressure and would convey messages of her two maternal uncles — one is in Panipat while the other one lives abroad.

“They would carry the uncles’ messages saying we should start collecting wood for our pyres, that Komal had brought great dishonour to her family by marrying into a lower cast and that we did not have too many days to live. It was a well-contemplated plan,” he emphasises, adding that Komal’s family did not interact with him or his family members and would speak to her alone. That fateful day, too, Anil was sitting with his wife when the brother came to visit them. They sat for some time in silence before Anil got up and went to the terrace to allow privacy to the brother and the sister. That was the last time he saw Komal smile for him. After that, he saw her in a pool of blood as she gasped a last time. There was no time for a goodbye. She is now only the happy pictures in his photo gallery on his mobile. He says, though, that love lives on.

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