All for `honour'

Relatives kill a Jat couple in Haryana to safeguard the community's honour, and the authorities are apparently slow to react.

T.K. RAJALAKSHMI in Rohtak and Kaithal

This is the story of Manoj and Babli, but could well be the story of the many couples in Haryana who have lost their lives for the sake of `honour' - family honour or community honour. In this case it is Jat honour, at Karoda village in Kaithal district.

The duo who were in their early twenties eloped on April 6 as village elders would not allow them to marry because both belonged to the Banwala gotra. Marrying a person of the same gotra is taboo in most parts of Haryana.

Initially, no one knew anything about their whereabouts, but they kept Manoj's family informed that they were well. Then, one day they telephoned home to say they had got married on April 7 at a temple in Chandigarh. The couple even sent them photographs of the wedding on the run.

In happier times, Manoj owned an electronics shop where he sold and repaired television sets. He was the only earning member of his family, his father having died when he, the eldest of four children, was just nine years old. His mother, Chandrapati, was perhaps the happiest person when he set up the shop. It meant another source of income to supplement the meagre earnings from the family's less-than-one-acre farm. Her days of struggle, she believed, would soon be over.

Babli came from a well-to-do family that is apparently politically influential as well. This correspondent arrived at Babli's home to a hostile reception. A group of men, relatives of the family, sitting outside threatened to have her assaulted. They told the driver of her car that the next time he dared to enter Karoda he would not find his car keys. "What do you want now? Our girl has dishonoured us, our sons are in jail; aren't you satisfied? If you don't leave now, we won't be responsible for what happens to you," one of them shouted.

From the accounts that Frontline gathered, Babli's mother Omwati's is the only sane voice in the family. A widow, she feared the worst for her daughter and apparently tried to convince her brother, brother-in-law and son that Babli had done nothing to dishonour the family. She is said to have assured them that the couple would return after a few months and everything would be fine. Frontline was not allowed to talk to her.

Meanwhile, following a complaint from Babli's family, the Kaithal police registered a first information report (FIR) in April alleging that Manoj and his family had kidnapped their minor daughter. The main complainant in the FIR was Omwati. Their search for the couple proved futile but they did not give up.

On May 31, the couple petitioned the Punjab and Haryana High Court stating that they feared for their lives. They also furnished proof of age and stated that they had married on their own will. In the petition, Babli was stated to be 19 years old and Manoj 23. In an order, the single-Judge Bench of Justice Pritam Pal stated that the two individuals were majors and that they were married to each other.

Following the filing of the FIR by her family, Babli gave a statement in front of the Rajaund police in Kaithal and in front of the Sessions Judge that she was a major and had consented to the marriage. The Sessions Judge reprimanded the police for suggesting that Babli be sent to the Nari Niketan and ordered them to let the couple go wherever they wanted. For safety reasons, the police were asked to accompany the couple. This was on June 15, which was perhaps also the day they were killed.

On June 20, on the basis of Chandrapati's complaint alleging kidnap, the Butana police in Kaithal finally registered an FIR. In her statement to the police, Chandrapati said that around 3.40 p.m., they received a call from Babli, who said she was calling from a telephone booth in Pipli and that they were on their way to Chandigarh. She said her family members were trailing them and that the police were no longer with them.

She said the police forced them off the bus they were in when she pointed out that two of her relatives had got on to the bus. Before hanging up Babli said they would try to take a bus to Delhi and would call them later. That was the last time Manoj's family heard from the couple.

"Babli gave us a number, but that number kept on ringing without any response for days," said Seema, Manoj's sister and Babli's good friend. Worried about the safety of the couple, the family decided to file a complaint with the police.

As the police in both Karnal and Kaithal showed little interest in finding out the whereabouts of the couple, the family, despite its meagre resources, decided to investigate on its own. A relative, Narender Singh, travelled to Pipli and made enquiries at several police stations. At the Butana (Karnal district) police station, he found that a complaint of kidnapping had been filed. Following the lead, he traced the road contractor who had made the complaint and showed him the picture of the couple. The contractor's response confirmed Narender's worst fears.

He told Narender that around 4.30 p.m. at Raipur Jatan, some 20 km from Pipli in Karnal district, the two were forced off a bus, beaten up and bundled into a waiting vehicle, a Scorpio. He said he informed the police immediately. The driver of the bus, too, alerted the police, said informed sources. However, the police failed to trace the vehicle or the couple.

On June 23, the bodies of the couple, with their hands and feet tied, were found in the Barwala branch canal in Hissar district. The main investigating officer from the Crime Investigation Agency unit in Karnal told Frontline that preliminary investigations and information gleaned from the questioning of the accused indicated that the couple were killed near Karoda itself on June 15.

According to information available with the officer, the two were asked to accept each other as brother and sister, but when they refused they were forced to consume a pesticide. When Manoj resisted, they strangled him, the officer said. He added that the killers threw the bodies in a nearby canal.

Narender, on leave from his government job and determined to find the culprits, continued his investigations, initially aimed at finding the vehicle. Seema and Chandrapati, too, did the rounds of police stations in Karnal and Kaithal. Said Seema: "When we went to meet the SP [Superintendent of Police] at Kaithal, we were made to wait for hours, only to be told by the policeman on duty that the complaint would be registered at Karnal. We spent Rs.300 that day just on travelling to Kaithal and stayed at a rest house as it was too late to get back home."

It was only on July 1 that the Narnaund police in Hissar informed Manoj's family of two highly decomposed bodies in their possession and called them for identification. "There were maggots on the clothes, so we requested the policemen to get them washed. Instead, they gave us some soap and water and told us to wash the clothes," said Seema and Chandrapati. "It was my brother's shirt and there was my bhabhi's bangle too," said Seema, breaking into tears.

The post-mortem of the bodies was done in Rohtak. No one from Babli's family identified her body or claimed her ashes. It was Jagmati Sangwan, State president of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), who collected the ashes and gave them to Manoj's family.

Eventually it was Narender who informed the police about the whereabouts of the vehicle and the identity of the driver. Police investigations finally led to the arrest of the driver and five members of Babli's family, including her brother, two uncles and two cousins. The arrests were made from July 1 onwards.

When the police questioned the driver, he said that Gangraj, a Congress leader of Karoda village, had hired his services for that day. Police sources, however, said little could be done regarding questioning Gangraj. "Mahaul aisa hai" (the atmosphere is bad), they said, apparently hinting at political pressure.

Karoda is among the bigger villages in Kaithal district. With a population of about 25,000, it has close to 10,000 voters, most of them Jats of the Banwala gotra, to which Gangraj belongs. The elected sarpanch of the village is a relative of Babli's family and is said to have played a partisan role in the case. "What good was the panchayat to us? They are supposed to listen to our side of the story also. Instead they have imposed a social boycott on us and a fine of Rs.25,000 on anyone who interacts with us," said Chandrapati. The social boycott was imposed on June 21, a day after the police registered the FIR against Babli's family.

The family faces threats frequently from influential residents of the village and the social boycott is bound to hurt it economically as well. Chandrapati is worried for her three children. While Seema has completed her first year of a law course in Jaipur, her sister has dropped out of school and her brother Vinod is in class XI.

A village resident explained what the boycott meant. No one would sell to or buy anything from the family; none would talk to the family or visit it; no doctor would be allowed to visit the family; in school no teacher would teach Vinod; and no classmate would talk to him.

The resident said no one could sell flour to the family. In fact, within a caste group such is the oppression of the economically weak by the affluent members that even rational elements have found it difficult to sustain their objections at this treatment.

Government employees affiliated to the Sarva Karamchari Sangh (SKS), the leading left-leaning employees union in the State, were threatened after they issued a statement condemning the murders and the harassment of the family. Even the Kaithal police told SKS representatives to keep off from "gotra issues".

Some residents told Frontline that the main objective of the boycott was to get Chandrapati to withdraw her complaint and prevent the filing of the FIR. Although most of the people in the village condemn the murder, they are afraid to speak up. "The social boycott is inhuman," said a retired army man in the village.

Manoj's family believes that the police were reluctant to act. Chandrapati said that since the day of the registration of the FIR, she went every day to Karnal SP A.S. Chawla's office to find out if any arrests had been made. Babli's family members and Gangraj justified the murders in public, she said, and added that almost everyone in the village knew who were behind the murders. Chandrapati said the SP told her to stop "troubling" him, and that she told him that she would visit his office until the accused were arrested.

On June 24, the family met Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his residence in Delhi. "Even before I could explain why we were there, the CM asked his Personal Assistant, Mahavir, to instruct the SP, Karnal, to take action promptly," said Narender. When Frontline asked Rajinder Singh, SP, Kaithal, about the dubious role of the police, he refused to comment, saying the matter was subjudice. He added that a departmental inquiry was on against the Station House Officer of Rajaund police station for deserting the couple. As for police protection, he said there was a PCR (police control room) van in the village.

Jagmati Sangwan of AIDWA alleged that Gangraj was the agent provocateur in this case. An AIDWA delegation led by all-India general secretary Sudha Sundararaman took Manoj's family to meet the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The delegation requested the intervention of both the statutory bodies by issuing directions to the State government to get the social boycott lifted, provide police protection to Manoj's family and take action against the people putting pressure on the family to withdraw the case.

Meanwhile, following a public interest petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the Karoda panchayat for violating the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, the court has issued notices to the panchayat and the government. The petition also demanded an inquiry by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) into the incident and sought directions from the court to instruct the government to do the same.

However, the Jat Mahasabha, a body representing the interests of Jats which is most active during the time of elections, is firmly behind Babli's family. The Mahasabha also holds strong views on social issues. In a statement to a Hindi newspaper, the Karnal Jat Mahasabha leadership extended its support to Babli's family stating that the couple had erred by getting married and that the murder was inevitable as the couple had left the accused with little choice.

But more puzzling is the silence of the political parties barring the Left, be it the ruling Congress or the main opposition Indian National Lok Dal. It is, perhaps, yet another indication of the importance parties attach to caste support and `gotra politics'.

In June, at Ajayab village in Rohtak district, in the Chief Minister's constituency, a Jat girl and a Dalit boy were killed by the girl's brother in full view of the village for having eloped. At Anwal village in Rohtak district, a youth killed his sister-in-law for being responsible for the alleged "waywardness" of his niece.

At Ghilor village, also in Rohtak, a man and a woman of the same gotra got married without the consent of their families and the panchayat. When they approached the Superintendent of Police for protection, the reality hit them. The SP sent the woman back to her family, apparently claiming that he had proof that she was a minor and arrested the man on the charge of kidnapping.

Jat honour has been redeemed many times over by means more foul than fair.