A 17-year-old girl has allegedly became the second victim of honour killing in Uttar Pradesh within 24 hours with her elder brother being arrested on the charge of slitting her throat with a vegetable knife in Baghpat district on Wednesday evening.
Police said Tarannum, a Class IX student in Tilpani village, was suspected to have been killed by her elder brother Mohammad Monish following an argument at home over her purported relationship with a member from her maternal uncle’s family.
Baghpat SP Niraj Kumar said: “Tarannum had been in touch with a youth from the neighbouring village of Barsiya. The primary investigation suggests that an elder brother of the victim killed her in the presence of her two uncles on Wednesday evening.”
Tarannum’s father Mohammad Shadab is a mason and was not in the village when the murder took place. Her mother died about 10 years ago. Tarannum used to living with her grandmother Zarina, one of her six elder brothers, Monish, and two uncles and their families.
Zarina told reporters: “Monish ran away from the village when I saw Tarannum dead.”
Dixit Kumar Tyagi, the inspector-in-charge of the area, said: “We came to know about the incident from the villagers and have recovered the body of the girl. It appears that the brother and sister had argued over her meeting a youth from a neighbouring village.... The brother is suspected to have killed her on the spot and run away.”
“We have arrested Monish and are interrogating him. Apparently, it is a case of honour killing,” he added.
The police said Tarannum’s friend belongs to the family of her maternal uncle and that her brother disliked him.
Earlier on Wednesday at Rani Nagla village in Moradabad, Neelam Kashyap, 17, was hacked to death allegedly by her elder brother and father after she had gone to the house of her friend to urge his father to get the two married.
