Man Gets Death Penalty For Murder Of Sister In Honour Killing (Haryana)

All India | Press Trust of India | Updated: December 05, 2018 23:17 IST

On February 9, 2017, Kiran was murdered under suspicious circumstances in Juglan village. She was later cremated in the village by her family members.

HISAR: A local court awarded the death penalty to a 26-year-old man Wednesday for murdering his sister.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Pankaj awarded the sentence to Ashok, 26, a resident of Juglan village in Hisar district. Ashok was held guilty of murdering his sister Kiran on February 9, 2017. According to prosecution, Rohtas of Siswal village had a love marriage with Kiran on August 8, 2015. The woman's family had opposed their marriage as Rohtas belonged to a different community.

On February 9, 2017, Kiran was murdered under suspicious circumstances in Juglan village. She was later cremated in the village by her family members. A police complaint was subsequently lodged after the man, who had helped register their marriage, raised suspicion alleging that Kiran's death could be a case of honour killing. The police later arrested Ashok, the brother of the victim. A case was registered against Ashok under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/haryana-man-gets-death-penalty-for-murder-of-sister-in-honour-killing-1958414 (Accessed 25 December 2018)

The road from Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu)

Written by P.S. KRISHNAN |Updated: January 19, 2018 12:04:13 am

The author is former Secretary to government of India and works in the field of social justice for SCs, STs, BCs for the last more than six-and-half decades.

P.S. Krishnan

The speedy trial and conviction in a Tamil Nadu ‘honour killing’ case indicates that amended SC/ ST Prevention of Atrocities act is yielding results. 

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015 (POA Amend. Act) has begun to yield results. The Act was enacted to comprehensively amend and strengthen the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 (POA Act 1989). Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur Principal District and Sessions Court has on December 12, 2017 convicted eight of the accused for the murder of V. Shankar, a B.Tech-educated Dalit youth, son of a labourer, as a punishment for the marriage between him and Kausalya, a non-Dalit, educated girl from a middle-class family. The court awarded death sentences to six of the accused, including Kausalya’s father. The trial was completed one year and nine months after the crime. 

V. Shankar, a B.Tech-educated Dalit youth and Kausalya, a non-Dalit, educated girl from a middle-class family 

This is fast by Indian standards and was facilitated by the appointment of an exclusive Special Public Prosecutor by the state government, in accordance with the POA Amend. Act. The trial could have been completed even faster — the Act lays down a time limit of two months — if the state government had, as required by the amended Act and Rules, also taken the following steps: One, establish an exclusive special court. Two, set up a high-powered “vigilance and monitoring committee”, with the chief minister as chairman and ministers of home, finance, and SC and ST departments, SC and ST MPs, MLAs and MLCs, senior bureaucrats, and local representatives of national commissions for SCs and STs as members. This committee is required to meet every January and July and discharge functions listed in Rule 16.

The Act requires these two steps to be taken by every state government. The successful prosecution of this case and the appropriate punishment awarded should be utilised to prevent further cases of atrocities including “dishonorable” killings, unfortunately referred to as “honour killings”. In addition to the two measures mentioned above, certain other steps must be taken in Tamil Nadu and all other states. There is clear perception of threat to the life and security of Kausalya and Shankar’s family. Effective police protection, withdrawn a year after the murder, should be restored and maintained till the threat clearly disappears. The death sentence will have to go to the high court for confirmation. There may also be appeals. These have to be diligently attended to by the state government.

Appropriate schemes should be prepared for the rights and entitlements of victims and witnesses in accessing justice as required. This case shows that the life of a young man with a promising career was snuffed out, the life of a young woman also with a promising career, blighted. A family has been drowned in sorrow, and six of the convicted are facing premature death by law. This is an example of wholesale destruction caused by the caste system. This case should be widely publicised and people exhorted to come out of the death-trap of the caste system and mentality. There have been a number of cases of the past where persons have been killed for Dalit and non-Dalit marriages and surviving wives and families are languishing, like those of Abhirami and Divya, whose husbands lost their life in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Abhirami’s elder brother and father were convicted in 2015. The state government has to take stock of such cases and ensure the confirmation of death sentences by the high court.

I am averse to all violence, including the death penalty. But unfortunately, in India’s deeply caste-ridden society in which normal human beings are criminalised in the caste context, death sentences become inevitable, like surgical amputations to save the body. All survivors should be fully and permanently rehabilitated and honoured in public functions. The state government should take charge of the entire education of the children of Abirami and other such survivors. The role of the local police in a number of cases has been adversely commented upon — like that of the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Usilampatti with respect to Dilip Kumar and Vimala Devi in 2014. Police officers and personnel who have been in dereliction of their duty should be prosecuted under Section 4 of the Act. The IPS officers of the state must rectify caste biases on the part of lower officers and personnel. The government should take stock of inter-caste marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits and give them full protection. 

Killings and other atrocities occur to the greatest extent in marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits. This is a recent phenomenon, in addition to the atrocities on traditional grounds related to land, resistance to “untouchability”, etc. But there are also instances where such crimes take place where partners belong to a non-Dalit “lower” caste and an “upper” caste. To cover such cases, it will be necessary to have a separate legislation with provisions for the effective protection, a deterrent death sentence, and total rehabilitation. This is particularly important because inter-caste marriages are bound to take place and should become more frequent. Political parties should take a clear stand against such violence and in favour of inter-caste marriages.

The perils of the caste system, including its adverse consequences on the growth of employment opportunities for the youth of all communities, should be effectively impressed on the younger generation through the education system. The POA Amendment Act should be studied by every chief minister, home minister, SC and ST department minister, chief secretary, home secretary and DGP. They should take full charge of its implementation. Training courses should be held at different levels for police officers and other officers of the district administration. 

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-road-from-tiruppur-dalit-murder-tamil-nadu-honour-killing-5030604/ (Accessed 24 December 2018)

‘Honour’ killing of Dalit youth Shankar in Tamil Nadu: death for six, including father-in-law

R. Vimal Kumar

TIRUPUR, DECEMBER 12, 2017 14:01 IST

Of the remaining five accused, one was awarded the life sentence, one got a five-year jail term and three were acquitted, including the victim's mother-in-law Annalakshmi.

A file picture of Sankar and Kausalya at the time of their wedding in 2015. Sankar, a Dalit, was hacked to death for marrying Ms. Kausalya , a caste Hindu.  

In what is believed to be the first such conviction in a case of murder perpetrated due to caste-based discrimination, a trial court here awarded death penalty to six persons, including the father of a caste Hindu girl, for conspiring and killing a Dalit youth who had fallen in love and married her. On March 13 last year, an armed gang had indiscriminately hacked Shankar, a Dalit youth, and his wife Kausalya belonging to the Thevar (OBC) community, outside a shopping complex in Udumalpet in Tirupur district, with long knives. While Shankar had succumbed to the injuries, Kousalya sustained serious injuries.

The police had arrested 11 persons including Kausalya’s parents Chinnasamy (40) and Annalakshmi (35) and the assailants. Following the trial, Principal District and Sessions Judge Alamelu Natarajan on Tuesday held eight of the 11 accused guilty and awarded death sentences to six of them including Chinnasamy (prime accused); life sentence to one accused and a five-year imprisonment term to another accused. She acquitted Annalakshmi (Accused 2), P. Pandidurai (A-3, Kausalya’s uncle) and the 10th accused V. Prasanna Kumar (19) stating the prosecution had failed to prove their involvement in the crime beyond reasonable doubt.

The death sentence of the six convicts would be executed subject to mandatory confirmation from Madras High Court. The court ordered to collect a total compensation of Rs 11,95,000 from the eight convicts which needed to be paid in different proportions to Kausalya, Shankar’s father and the government.

Death penalty

Among those awarded capital punishment were accused P. Jagadeesan (31), M. Manikandan (25), P. Selvakumar (25), P. Kalaithamizhvanan (24), and M. Madan alias Michael (25), all assailants in the case, hailing from Dindigul district. Stephen Dhanraj (23) was given life sentence without provisions for remission and M. Manikandan (39 – the A-11) will have to spend five years in jail. Since the latter was out on bail, the police took him immediately into custody on the directions of the judge.

Before pronouncing the verdict, the judge asked the prosecution why capital punishment was being sought for the accused. To this Special Public Prosecutor U. Sankaranarayanan, cited Supreme Court judgments in four instances where the court had recommended for death penalty. The instances were related to cases of murder of Dalits – who had married caste Hindus, hiring of people to execute murder and killing people who were in helpless circumstances. “All these incidents apply in this case”, he argued. Mr. Sankaranarayanan told The Hindu that the prosecution would study the court order before taking a decision to appeal against the acquittal of the three persons in the case.

An image of the woman, identified as Kausalya, sitting up in her hospital bed with bloodied bandages went viral in India

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/shankar-murder-case-father-in-law-gets-death-sentence/article21478790.ece (Accessed 23 December 2018)

Nashik man sentenced to death in honour killing case (Maharashtra)

TNN | Jun 20, 2017, 05.53 AM IST

By - Ranjan Dasgupta

NASHIK: In a landmark judgment related to "honour killing", the Nashik district sessions court on Monday sentenced a man to death for killing his pregnant daughter in 2013 because she had married outside their caste. Public prosecutor Purnima Naik said the court of Suchitra Ghodke gave the capital punishment to Eknath Kumbharkar for murdering his 18-year old pregnant daughter Pramila Kamble. "The court described the incident as falling in the rarest of rare category," said Naik. "There were 10 witnesses in the case, none of whom turned hostile. He said this is perhaps the first time that a city court has pronounced the death penalty for an honour killing in Nashik district." 

On June 28, 2013, Kumbharkar, who lived at Panchavati, hired a rickshaw early in the morning and went to Pramila's place at Mahatma Nagar near Suyojit Lawns. He invited his daughter back home. When they were near Joshiwada, behind KTHM College, on the return, Kumbharkar asked the rickshaw driver to call his brother-in-law who lived nearby. When the driver left, Kumbharkar strangled Pramila to death. The rickshaw driver, on returning, rushed Pramila to the civil hospital but she was declared brought dead. Meanwhile, the police rushed to Joshiwada and nabbed Kumbharkar within half an hour. Police said Kumbharkar was angry with Pramila for having married Deepak Kamble, who belonged to another caste, one-and-ahalf years before the incident. 

The incident had sparked protests in the city with hundreds of social activists taking out a silent protest march from the statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on Shivaji Road to the district collectorate.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nashik/nashik-man-gets-death-for-killing-pregnant-daughter/articleshowprint/59227210.cms (Accessed 23 December 2018)

In a First, Death Sentence Awarded to Couple for Honour Killing (Tamil Nadu)

THE NEWS MINUTE 11.01.17

The Quint

This is reportedly the first time a death sentence has been awarded for a case of honour killing.

In a landmark judgement, a sessions court in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu awarded the death penalty to a couple in a case of honour killing. Viswanathan, a Dalit man who was working as a railway employee from Vannarpet in Palayamkottai, had eloped with an engineering student, Kaveri, a caste Hindu girl from Mangalakudiyiruppu on 3 May 2016. Even as the couple were away, Kaveri’s parents visited Viswanathan’s house several times, threatening his family to return their daughter. Following the threats, Viswanathan’s father approached the police saying that his son was missing and had sought protection for their family, reported Times of India.

On 13 May 2016, Kaveri’s parents went to Viswanathan’s house in search of their daughter. After a heated argument with Viswananthan’s younger sister Kalpana, Sankaranarayan, Kaveri’s father, hacked Kalpana with an aruval. She died later due to the injuries. Police arrested Kaveri’s parents on charges of honour killing, and during their trial, around 17 witnesses were produced. Judge K Abdul Khader awarded the death sentence to the couple. The government has also ordered Rs 8. 75 lakh to be paid as compensation to Kalpana’s husband and Rs 11,600 to her two-year-old son until he attains the age of 21, reported Times of India. Viswanathan and Kaveri secretly got married on 29 December 2015, reported The Hindu. Kaveri’s parents had started looking for a groom for her after she completed her course.

Source: https://www.thequint.com/news/india/in-a-first-death-sentence-awarded-to-couple-for-honour-killing-in-tamil-nadu (Accessed 23 December 2018)

Honour killing: HC commutes to life death sentence of three

Press Trust of India | New Delhi April 17, 2014 Last Updated at 19:16 IST

The Delhi High Court today commuted to life term the death sentence awarded to three members of a family for the honour killing of a teen couple in 2010, saying there is a possibility of their reformation. A special bench of justices S Muralidhar and Mukta Gupta acquitted two others - the girl's mother and aunt - who also had been awarded capital punishment by the trial court, saying they were only "spectators" to the crime and did not share the common intention to murder the couple.

 "The court is of the opinion that ends of justice would be met if convicted appellants Om Prakash and Suraj are awarded the sentence of imprisonment for life which will not be less than 20 years actual. Since, appellant Sanjeev is a young man who was not married, the court considers it fit to sentence him to imprisonment of life subject to remissions.... "Appellants Maya (mother) and Khushboo (aunt) are acquitted of the offences with which they were charged," the bench said.

It said, "The two ladies could be at best be said to be spectators to what was being done by the three men in the house. "No doubt, as a mother and aunt there was an omission on their part to have not saved at least Asha, their daughter. However, the said omission does not qualify the test that they shared the common intention with the three men to commit the murder....," the high court said. Defence lawyer Sumeet Verma had argued that in the absence of an overt act being attributed to Khushboo and Maya, they cannot be convicted for offence of murder on the ground that they shared a common intention to commit the crime.

The court reduced to life term the death sentence awarded to the girl's father, uncle and cousin brother - Suraj, Om Prakash and Sanjeev respectively - saying there is no material placed on record by the State to show they cannot be reformed or are a menace to the society. "Although there are aggravating circumstances, there is no material placed on record by the State to show that the appellants Om Prakash, Suraj and Sanjeev are persons who cannot be reformed or are a menace to the society.... "Thus, this court is of the considered opinion that the penalty of death cannot be awarded to convicted appellants," the bench said.

Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/hc-commutes-death-penalty-to-life-in-honour-killing-case/ [accessed 24 April 2014]

HC acquits 7 men awarded death penalty in honour killing case

PTI | Jul 13, 2013, 09.53PM IST

ALLAHABAD: Due to lack of evidence, the Allahabad high court has let off seven persons, who were awarded death sentence by a lower court in connection with an alleged honour killing case of Badaun district in Uttar Pradesh.

A division bench comprising Justice Amar Saran and Justice Pankaj Naqvi on Friday ordered "the release of Natthu, Rakesh, Mahavir, Viresh, Jai Prakash, Pappu and Gulab Singh" holding that they "stand acquitted of charges they had been found guilty of".

The appellants had challenged July 30, 2012 order of additional sessions judge, Badaun.

They were awarded death sentence for allegedly burning alive Deen Dayal and Anita in a village under Gunnaur police station of the district on the intervening night of May 22-23, 2006.

Anita was the daughter of one of the appellants, Natthu.

The girl's affair with Deen Dayal was said to have been bitterly opposed by her family.

However, during the trial, Natthu denied his involvement in the incident and claimed that the remaining six accused had "resorted to this abhorrent crime to grab his property".

The high court struck down the conviction of all the seven accused observing that the trial court had convicted them "on the strength of the statement" given by Natthu, which was "not a substantive piece of evidence which could have nailed the other set of accused persons".

"The trial court was swayed by the fact Natthu in his statement ... had admitted his presence at the scene of occurrence," the court noted, adding "this approach was absolutely de hors the law.

The prosecution had failed to prove the case, in the mode and manner as alleged by them beyond a reasonable doubt.

Source : http://m.timesofindia.com/city/lucknow/HC-acquits-7-men-awarded-death-penalty-in-honour-killing-case/articleshow/21060034.cms

Death penalty for five family members in 'honour killing'

Five members of a family in the Indian capital, Delhi, have been sentenced to death for the brutal murder of a young couple in 2010. Yogesh and Asha were tortured and electrocuted in a so-called honour killing by members of Asha's family who objected to the union on caste grounds. Asha's parents, her uncle, aunt and a cousin were arrested the day after the crime. They were convicted on Monday. Last year the Supreme Court said honour killings should get the death penalty. There are no statistics on the number of honour killings across the country, but according to one recent study, hundreds of people are killed each year for falling in love or marrying against their families' wishes. Most parents in India still prefer arranged marriages within their own caste and relationships outside of caste are frowned upon. The couple, who were neighbours in the Gokulpuri area of north-east Delhi, were taken by Asha's parents to her uncle's house in the Swaroop Nagar area of the city where the torture and killings took place. Asha's family was opposed to the couple's plans to get married because Yogesh belonged to a lower caste. All five accused were convicted on Monday for "murder and voluntarily causing hurt". "It can be safely concluded that the prosecution has been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused persons had caused the death of the victims with the common intention after giving them merciless beatings by tying them with rope and thereafter electrocuting them on various parts of their body," Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar said on Monday. IANS Source:www.southasiamail.com/news.php?id=107083 [accessed on 8th October 2012]

Jind honour killing: Father’s death sentence commuted

Sanjeev Verma, Hindustan Times
Chandigarh, February 25, 2012

Not finding the 2010 Jind honour killing case in the category of ‘gravest case of extreme culpabilty’, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday commuted the death sentence awarded by the trial court to the victim’s father, Ram Raji, to life imprisonment. However, the court upheld the life term
awarded to the girl’s mother, Kailash Devi.

Vikas, a 21-year-old Jat youth of Sangatpura village in Jind district, was in love with Ritu, a 19-year-old girl from the Brahmin family that resided in Krishna colony of the district. The couple wanted to marry but the girl’s parents killed both of them on the night of September 12, 2010.

Vikas’s father Ramesh had lodged an FIR at the police station in Jind on September 13, 2010.
Vikas’s body was found in a vacant plot in sector 8 of Jind town. After murdering Ritu, her parents cremated her at Brahmanwas village in the district without informing the police.

On August 10 last year, the Jind additional district and sessions judge convicted both the parents of the girl under Section 302 of the IPC (murder). The judge ordered that Ram Raji be hanged, while his wife Kailash Devi was sentenced to life imprisonment. The parents approached the high court against trial court’s orders.

While pronouncing the murder reference, the high court division bench headed by justice SS Saron held, “Even at the outset we may hasten to state that the trial court without drawing a balance sheet of aggravated and mitigating circumstances exercised the option of awarding death penalty to the accused appellant Ram Raji.”

The bench stated that in its view the case “that is entirely based upon circumstantial evidence does not call for extreme punishment of death sentence.”

The division bench added that it was a well-settled principle of law that only in the “gravest case of extreme culpability” the court should think in terms of imposing capital punishment of death. “The life imprisonment is a rule and the death sentence is an exception as per the current scheme of the penal law in India,” the bench said.

In its observations, the bench mentioned a similar honour killing case of Dalip Premnarayan Tiwari vs the state of Maharashtra of 2010 in which the apex court had reduced the death sentence awarded by the trial court and later confirmed by the high court to 25 years of actual imprisonment to three accused and 20 years to one of the accused.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Chandigarh/Jind-honour-killing-Father-s-death-sentence-commuted/Article1-816796.aspx [accessed on 28th February 2012]

India 'honour killers' face death for 1991 murders

BBC News Asia:
16 November 2011 Last updated at 19:31 GMT

A judge in India has sentenced eight men to death and 20 others to life imprisonment for three so-called honour killings that took place in 1991.The men were found guilty of murdering a Dalit boy and a girl from a higher caste who had eloped together, as well as the boy's cousin. All three were set alight and hanged, the court in Uttar Pradesh state heard.

A BBC correspondent says the sentences are some of the most severe ever recorded in a such a case. Earlier this year India's Supreme Court ordered states to stamp out "honour killings, saying people found guilty of such crimes should face execution. Convictions in such cases often carry life sentences.

The death penalty is awarded only very rarely in India - when executions are authorised they can be delayed for years on appeal.

Genitals burned Age-old notions of tradition and family honour are still deeply entrenched in many parts of Indian society. According to one recent study, hundreds of people are killed each year for falling in love or marrying outside their caste or against their families' wishes. Often "honour" crimes are endorsed, or even encouraged, by village-based caste councils or panchayats.

The court in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh heard how Vijander, a Dalit boy, had eloped with his girlfriend, Roshni. She was a member of the higher-caste Jaat community and from the same village, Mehrana, near the border with Haryana state. The couple returned to Mehrana a few days later thinking anger would have subsided, the BBC's Ram Dutt Tripathi in Lucknow reports.

But village elders decreed they be killed, along with Vijander's cousin Ram Kishan, who had helped them elope. The killings took place on 22 March 1991 and were brutal - the court heard how the genitals of the deceased were burned before they were hanged from a tree.

The case came to light because the parents of the boys lodged a case against the council for ordering the killings, our correspondent says.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15759470
accessed on 18th Nov 2011