‘Kindly protect us’: Target of honour killing wrote to Sonepat Police

Two days after a 24-year-old man was shot dead and his wife left severely injured in Dwarka, Delhi Police have found that the couple, who had eloped and got married in August last year, wrote to the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Sonepat to “grant them security”.

Police said six-seven men broke into the couple’s house in Ambrahi village in Dwarka on Thursday night and fired around 10 rounds, killing 24-year-old Vinay Dahiya, a taxi driver, and leaving his wife, 19-year-old Kiran, injured. On Saturday, police said Kiran is stable and has been shifted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.

As reported by The Indian Express, the couple, who got married on August 13, approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking protection. In an order dated August 19, Justice Raj Mohan Singh had asked the Sonepat SSP to “ascertain the truth in the allegations of the petitioners… assess the threat perception of the petitioners”.

However, the couple’s advocate claimed Sonepat police did not take “concrete action”.

Delhi Police said they are questioning Kiran’s family members, including her father, brother and cousins. Kiran is learnt to have told police she saw some of them during the attack.

In a representation sent by Kiran and her advocate to the Sonepat SSP on August 13 last year, she said she knew Vinay for a year and a half and wanted to marry him, but her family disagreed.

“My family is opposed to this relation. On getting a chance, I ran away from the house of my free will and got married as per Hindu rites and ceremonies on 13.08.2020. We are living as husband and wife out of our free will. However, my family has been threatening us and may also lodge false complaints against us,” read the letter.

The letter also mentions that Vinay’s family had eventually agreed to the marriage, but Kiran’s mother and relatives were against it as it was a “love marriage”.

It also stated that her family members had “started to search for them in order to kill them”.

“Kindly protect me, my husband Vinay and his family, so that my family members cannot cause any damage to us,” wrote Kiran in the letter.

The couple later moved the High Court to seek protection. The court had disposed of the petition, stating that the petitioners should approach local police.

“It would be appreciated if needful in deciding the representation is done within a period of one month from the date of receipt of certified copy of this order,” the court told police in the order.

Responding to the letter and lawyer’s allegations, a senior police officer from the SSP’s office claimed the couple never approached them or asked for help.

“They asked the court to quash an FIR that was registered on a complaint by Kiran’s mother, wherein she alleged her daughter was a minor and was abducted. We investigated the matter and found that the girl wasn’t a minor and cancelled the case. The couple later left the village and never asked the police for help,” claimed the officer.

However, their advocate, Abhimanyu Kalsy, claimed the couple had been receiving death threats from the woman’s family for a long time.

“We sent several applications to seek protection and quash the FIR, which the SSP, Sonepat must have received. How can he say that the couple didn’t approach him? Even if they didn’t, he must have received HC orders to look into the matter. The police didn’t take any concrete action.”