INDIA:POLICE HAVE arrested four people in an "honour killing" case in which a father strangled his 23-year-old pregnant daughter and her husband, and then displayed the bodies in their northern Indian village as a warning to others against emulating the couple's "incestuous immorality".
Jasbir Singh (27) and his six-months pregnant wife Sunita were murdered on Friday by her father Om Prakash and some relatives and neighbours who considered them siblings because both belonged to the same Ballah village in Haryana state, 145km (90 miles) north of New Delhi.
The couple were also from the same Jat agricultural community, and their union was considered incestuous.
After the killing, Prakash, accompanied by applauding villagers, marched defiantly to the local police station to report the crime and then returned home unhindered.
The police remained reluctant to act for almost two days because the murderers were Jats, like them, but following media pressure they registered a murder case on Sunday and arrested four people.
Earlier, in a statement to television news channels, Sunita's mother Roshni Devi admitted that her family had committed the crime.
She expressed no regret over her daughter's killing, claiming that she was "happy" about it and that it had preserved their family's honour and reputation. "She got what she deserved," she said.
Other villagers also hailed the killings, saying such marriages brought disgrace upon them.
Honour killings are not uncommon in Haryana, where women are put to death by their families if they "violate" the community's reputation by marrying a person outside their caste, community or religion.
Suspected marital infidelity, pre-marital sex, flirting and even failing to serve a hot meal on time can be perceived as impugning the family honour and punished, often with death, female activists said.
According to the All-India Democratic Women's Association, 10 per cent of murders in Haryana are honour killings, but the majority of them go unreported.