A 20-year-old woman was beaten to death and her husband beheaded by members of her own family in a horrific honor killing Wednesday in India.
Nidhi Barak, 20, and Dharmender Barak, 23, both students, were killed in Gharnavati village in the Indian state of Haryana as onlookers watched, the Daily Mail reported.
The couple had eloped earlier in the week because their families didn’t approve of the relationship. The girl’s parents then allegedly duped the two into believing a wedding ceremony was waiting for them when they returned home.
Police said the couple were tortured for several hours at Mrs. Barak’s home before she was beaten to death in full public view, the Daily Mail reported.
Mr. Barak was beaten and his arms and legs broken, before he was beheaded. His body was allegedly dumped at a public square, and the girl’s body was reportedly cremated on a pyre by her family.
Mrs. Barak’s parents and uncle have been arrested and police are now trying to trace her brother and other family members who disappeared missing since the crime.
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“We have arrested her father, mother and uncle and we are looking for her brother, a friend and driver of the car in which the couple were brought back to her home in Gharnavati village,” said local police chief Anil Kumar. “Both belonged to the same village and the same caste. It is an honor killing but the murder was not approved by society.”
There are no official figures on honor killings in India, the report states, but the All India Democratic Women’s Association estimates about 1,000 such cases nationwide a year.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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