Dishonour Killing: Father kills 17-year-old daughter in Bengaluru for eloping with a Dalit youth

The girl was a Class 11 student and her father had stopped her from studying further after he learnt she was in love with a Dalit youth.

By Bellie Thomas

In a case of dishonour killing, a 50-year-old man surrendered before the police in Bengaluru after murdering his 17-year-old daughter for being in love with a Dalit youth with whom she had eloped last week from a relative’s house in Bengaluru.

The accused, a farmer and a resident of HD Kote taluk of Mysuru in Karnataka, had used a machete to attack his daughter, a Class 11 student, on 21 October, Saturday, following a heated argument with her.

The police had traced the runaway couple and re-united her with her parents recently.

A senior police officer said that the 17-year-old victim and her family belonged to the Vokkaliga Gowda community.

As the victim was a minor, her identity as well as that of her father, the accused, have been withheld.

Caste differences

According to the police, the incident took place around 10 am on 21 October at the Doctors Layout in Naganathapura, near Parappana Agrahara, Southeast Bengaluru.

The accused attacked his daughter with a machete, and she sustained grievous injuries to her neck and head. When his wife, the victim’s mother, tried to intervene, she was also attacked by the accused, the police said.

The accused was furious as he believed that because of his daughter’s relationship with the Dalit youth, his family’s reputation was being tarnished in his village in Mysuru, a senior police officer told South First.

“The father had forced his daughter to quit college and then sent her to his sister-in-law’s house in Bengaluru to prevent his daughter from contacting her friend,” the officer added.

Police officials probing the case said that the 17-year-old was in a relationship with a Dalit youth while she was a Class 11 student. Her family members got to know of their relationship, and objected to it.

The father decided to discontinue his daughter’s studies and sent her to his sister’s house in Naganathapura that falls under the Parappana Agrahara police station limits.

On 14 October, the girl went missing from the relative’s house. The relatives informed the father and both the parents rushed to Bengaluru the same day and started to search for her.

They subsequently learnt that she had eloped with the Dalit youth, and decided to file a complaint with the police. In their complaint, they stated that their minor daughter had gone missing from their house on 18 October.

As the missing person was a minor, the police registered a case of kidnap and began to probe the case. On 20 October, the police traced the girl along with the Dalit youth, who had taken her to one of his relatives’ house in the city.

The cops booked the man under sections of POCSO Act on charges of sexually assaulting a minor girl and arrested him. He was produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.

Enraged father

On 21 October, a quarrel ensued between the father and the daughter at their relative’s house in Naganathapura. The father grew furious and attacked his daughter with a machete.

She sustained grievous injuries to her neck and head. She succumbed to her injuries at a hospital a couple of hours after the incident, the police said.

The father also attacked his wife and his sister’s husband, both of whom tried to intervene, the police said. The father then surrendered before the Parappana Agrahara police admitting that he had killed his daughter.

He told the police that he was angry at his daughter for neglecting her studies at this tender age and not because she was in love with a Dalit youth.

The police have registered a murder case and arrested the father who was also produced before a magistrate who remanded him to judicial custody.

Courtesy : TSF

Note: This news piece was originally published in thesouthfirst.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Right