A 17-year-old girl Aastha, was allegedly killed by strangulation and her head was cut off using a bolt cutter by her mother with assistance from brother, maternal uncle and other members of the family for having a romantic relationship with a man she met on the social media. Her headless body was then thrown off in the canal where a farmer found it and notified the police. The head of the girl is still not found.
A piece of paper with the name of one Vikas and a phone number was found in her dead hands which prompted the police to call her boyfriend / romantic partner Vikas who confirmed her identity. The police then contacted her family and soon pieced the events together and concluded that it was a case of honour killing.
The girl’s father is reportedly a CRPF personnel posted in Chhattisgarh and unaware of the incidents.
The girl’s family apparently told the police that she was missing from home and even reported a missing person case to mislead the police. Such evasive tactics clearly indicates that these people are aware of their crime and are not ready to go to jail for their crime which they commit for the sake of their traditions and honours. They will kill the daughter for honour, but run away from the next logical step, the punitive consequences of their regressive traditions, jail or death sentence.
Young women are killed every other day in the name of honour but the issue continues to be seen through the lens of caste. On today’s date, when the WN team searched for “Honour Killing” on Twitter (X), the first thing we noticed was a post from The Dalit Voice (@AmbedkeriteIND) which reported of another case where a Dalit man was killed for having a relationship with, presumably, a Savarna woman who has been referred to as “Hindu woman” by the original poster, bringing focus on the Dalit-Savarna communal issue.
This remains the issue with honour killing, it is always seen from a caste angle and not from the perspective of either patriarchy or individualism. It continues to be a community based issue instead of women’s right to choose or individual right and life.
The present case also defies the idea that it is the father and brother who usually kill the daughter.
The mother and family members are not even that old generation. These are people who grew up and living in modern economically liberalized India exposed to diverse culture and yet this is their mindset.
This is the reality of so called modern India and mother of democracy.
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