A local court has directed Delhi Police Commissioner to get its specialised wing to investigate a possible "honour killing" angle in the death of a minor girl, who had married a youth from another religion without the consent of her parents.
Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau gave the directions for further probe in the case while acquitting the youth of the charges of rape and murder. The court, however, held him guilty of kidnapping his wife, who was 16-and-a-half-year-old.
It also asked police to submit its report before a chief metropolitan magistrate within three months.
"Further investigations would be required to be conducted on the issue of unnatural death of the girl particularly on the aspect of honour killing of the deceased and on the role of her parental family in the same.
"However, since the local police appears to have already made up their mind and given a clean chit to the family of the deceased despite voluminous material pointing a finger towards them, it would be desirable that the Commissioner of Police, Delhi personally intervenes in this regard and, in order to ensure that justice is done to the young girl, get the further investigations conducted through its specialised wings i.E. Homicidal Wing (Crime Branch) or any other wing sensitised for handling such investigations," the court said.
According to the police, the Badli resident had kidnapped the girl, with whom he was in love, in September 2010 and after physical relations with her, he married her.
In March 2011, after giving her poison, the youth had left the girl at her parents house and when her condition deteriorated, she was shifted by her family to a hospital where she had died, it said.
During the trial, the youth told the court the girl was a consenting party and had voluntarily eloped with him after which they married and started happily residing at his house.
He had also said that the girl's parents were against their inter-religion marriage and "it is her parents who had killed his wife only to take revenge and to save their honour in the society".
