For the first time in nearly a year, Vinay and his father spoke over the phone 10 days ago. “It was a 10-minute call. He asked me how I was and I said I was fine,” the father said before breaking into tears.
In a suspected case of honour killing, the 23-year-old man, Vinay, was shot dead while his 19-year-old wife injured in a village in Dwarka on Thursday night, the police said on Friday. The woman, Kiran Dahiya, who sustained five bullet injuries, is said to be critical.
Vinay’s 59-year-old father Om Prakash, who works at a post office, was at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital on Friday along with his brother and his son’s friend. He was waiting for his son’s body. The last time he had met the son was in August 2020, right before the couple left the village to get married.
“They both belong to the same clan and lived in the same village. How could they get married? We have to live in the society and their marriage is an insult to us,” Mr. Prakash said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Santosh Kumar Meena said Vinay and Kiran belonged from Sonipat’s Kharkhoda village. Vinay worked as a driver, he said, adding that the incident happened at the couple’s rented accommodation in Ambrahi village.
Six men barged into their residence at 9 p.m. and shot at both of them multiple times, an officer said. Vinay succumbed to four injuries and Kiran is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Dwarka.
Mr. Prakash said the couple got married on August 13 last year and they got to know about the marriage three days later.
“They [couple] had a court marriage in Chandigarh. A lawyer from the village informed a family member, who further told us. I hadn’t seen my son since,” he said, adding that he doesn’t know if his wife ever spoke to Vinay.
Though in tears, Mr. Prakash still holds a grudge against his son for marrying within the clan. “I was helpless because the police called me to come for post-mortem formalities. I wouldn’t have come otherwise,” he said, adding: “Vinay’s mother had fallen sick worrying about him in February and was hospitalised as well.”
Mr. Prakash was informed about his son’s murder on Thursday night. On Friday, he went to the hospital to meet his daughter-in-law — for the first time after their wedlock. “She told me her brother and cousin had come along with a few others and shot at them. The police have picked up her family members to ask about the two,” he said.
In a video captured in a CCTV close to the spot, the accused can be seen running.
‘Tea with couple’
Police sources said the accused didn’t shoot at the couple right after entering the house but first spoke to the woman and also had tea with the couple.
Police teams are now looking for the woman’s brother and cousin and conducting raids at their suspected hideouts in Haryana.