Despite protection from the Rajasthan High Court, an 18-year-old girl who had married a Dalit man has been murdered by her father, reports said.
Police found the body of the girl with strangulation marks on it, The Indian Express reported.
A case of murder has been registered against the father in Kotwali police station and he has been taken into custody, reported NDTV.
Pinki was allegedly forcibly married to another man by her family on 16 February but she escaped from her home and eloped with her lover, a Dalit man, Roshan Mahawar. Later, the couple went before the Rajasthan High Court and expressed their desire to live together. Pinki also filed a petition in the HC demanding protection after which the court had directed the Ashok Nagar police station of Jaipur to provide her security.
On 1 March, the young couple reached Roshan's home in Dausa but when Pinki's family came to know about it, they allegedly kidnapped her.
Roshan had lodged a case of kidnapping at the women's police station. On Thursday morning, the father killed his daughter and went to the police station to confess his crime.
Talking to The New Indian Express, Anil Beniwal, SP, Dausa, said, “The father has confessed that he killed his daughter. He has told us that he had got his daughter married but she ran away with her lover. The father says his daughter has ruined the family’s izzat (honour) and says that if she wanted to elope why did she not do so before her marriage.”
“In the High Court order of 26th February, the local authorities were asked to provide police protection wherever the young couple asked for the same. In compliance with that, the Jaipur police gave them protection till they wanted. When they left Jaipur and reached Dausa, the young couple never informed the police and we had no idea about their whereabouts. It is only when the young man came and complained that Pinki had been kidnapped by her family that we got to know about them. When we searched the girl’s home, we did not find her there,” the SP added.
In 2019, the Rajasthan government had passed a stringent law against ‘honour killings’ with punishment ranging from life imprisonment to death sentence.
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