HC directs Haryana DGP to have an IPS probe the ‘honour killing’ of Banur youth

Two years after a Banur resident had approached Punjab and Haryana high court seeking probe into the alleged honour killing of his 30-year-old son, the court has directed Haryana director general of police (DGP) to get the matter investigated by a special investigation team (SIT) headed by an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP). 

The youth, named Gurjit Singh, who worked in merchant navy, was found hanging on May 8, 2014 at the house of a Jagadhri resident in Yamunanagar district in Haryana, with whose daughter the youth was in a relationship, as per the petition filed by the youth’s father Sher Singh. 

As per Sher Singh, the cases of honour killings were rampant in Haryana and this too was one of those cases. Gurjit was called by the woman’s father, Ram Kumar to his house in Jagadhri, where he was allegedly brutally murdered. Ram Kumar’s daughter was married in Banur, where she had developed proximity with Gurjit. The woman was unhappy in her married life and Gurjit’s wife had died three years’ before his death. Her father was aware of their relationship, the petitioner had told the court.

On the other hand, the woman’s father had admitted before the police that Gurjit had a scuffle with him on the fateful day. But out of frustration, he locked himself up in a room and was later found hanging. The door was found bolted from inside, Ram Kumar had submitted.

The police had not registered an FIR considering it as a suicide case as a suicide note was found pasted in the room. The cause of death was opined as asphyxia as a result of hanging. 

However, the petitioner’s counsel, Harsh Vardhan Shehrawat had argued that the investigating agency had not got the handwriting on the suicide note compared to that of the deceased. The youth was done to death and then hanged to give a colour of suicide. The police connived with the woman’s father. Hence besides, a probe into the death action should be taken against the police officials involved in the case, Shehrawat had argued.

The high court bench of justice RK Jain, taking note of the fact that the respondents were also not opposed to an SIT probe, has now directed the DGP to get the matter probed.