Bhiwani, Haryana:
A convicted rapist out on bail was arrested along with his cousin for brutally beating to death in full public view his own aunt and another widow in the name of family honour in a Haryana village. However, no villager was willing to come forward as witness, police said on Tuesday.
The two women were attacked at Ranila village in Bhiwani district late Sunday night. The horrific crime was committed in front of at least 200 villagers, including dozens of women, but nobody came to the women's rescue.
"The bodies were lying unattended in the open and nobody had touched them till the arrival of police. The accused were suspicious about the women's character and had also threatened the villagers with dire consequences if anyone dared to save them," said a police official.
The victims were identified as Suman, 35, the mother of an eight-year-old girl, and Shakuntala, 40, the mother of a 15-year-old boy. They were beaten up brutally with sticks by Shakuntala's nephew Naresh, 23, and his cousin Subhash, 22, police said.
According to Ashwin, Bhiwani's superintendent of police, none of the villagers were willing to come forward as witness. He told IANS: "This is obviously a difficult case when you do not have anybody coming forward as witness. Proving the case against the accused is a challenge."
"We need a strong witness protection system to tackle such cases. Our investigation is on and police are trying their best to take this case to a rational conclusion," he said.
"We have arrested both. Naresh is already a convict in a rape case and he was out of jail on parole. He had come to the village only 10 days ago," said the official.
Ashwin added: "We have booked the accused for trespass and murder. This is a heinous twin murder case, and we will make sure that strict action is taken against the accused. During the interrogation, we discovered that Subhash's brother Sudhir also had illicit relations with the deceased Suman."
The two men surrendered before police and confessed their crime, the official added.
"We have killed them as they were spoiling the image of our family and bringing a bad name to our community. It was necessary to save the honour of our family," Naresh told police.
Suman's father Rajinder Singh alleged that some other youths were also involved in the crime.
"Police should investigate this matter thoroughly. Some more local youths were also accompanying Naresh and Subhash and police should arrest them too," said Singh.
Nobody dared to stop the attackers and remained mute spectators. But the village headman informed police Monday morning.
"I immediately informed police when I came to know about the incident. Tension still prevails in our village and we have requested police to deploy more security personnel here," village headman Rishi Sahu told IANS on Tuesday.
"We are now trying to convince people to come forward as witnesses," stated Sahu.
In the past, many cases of honour killings, involving the murders of young girls and women, have come to light across the state. Female foeticide is also prevalent here.