Interfaith couple attacked in Telangana, man stabbed to death
HYDERABAD: A 25-year-old Hindu man was brutally killed in broad public view here by his Muslim wife's brother and another person in a case of suspected honour killing, with the incident sending shockwaves after the gory murder that was caught on camera went viral.
The incident happened on Wednesday night at Saroornagar when the victim, B Nagaraju, a Dalit was travelling on a motorbike with his wife and was confronted by his attackers -- Syed Mobin Ahmed and Mohammed Masood Ahmed -- who came on a scooter, stopped the couple on the road and attacked the man in full public view with an iron rod before stabbing him with a knife, killing him on the spot, police said. Both persons have been arrested.
Police said Syed Mobin Ahmed was opposed to his sister's relationship with Nagaraju, and had even warned her against it.
After stopping the couple, the duo pushed Nagaraju to the ground and beat him up indiscriminately with the rod and stabbed him to death and finally fled the place, police said.
Both the accused were arrested on Thursday. Deputy Commissioner of Police (LB Nagar Zone) Sunpreet Singh told reporters a murder case under relevant Indian Penal Code sections and the SC/ ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015 was registered. The case would be tried in a fast-track court, the DCP added.
The victim's distraught wife told the media she knew her husband for the last 11 years and claimed five persons attacked him.
The Hindu-Muslim couple were classmates in school and college and were in love for more than five years even as her family was against the relationship. They got married in January this year against the wishes of her family members, police said.
Mobin Ahmed had warned his sister in the past, police said, adding she subsequently walked out of her house to marry Nagaraju.
Since then Mobin Ahmed was nursing a grudge against Nagaraju, police said. He had been planning to eliminate Nagaraju and along with his relative hatched a plan and implemented it on Wednesday, police said. The victim's father also alleged Mobin Ahmed was opposed to the inter-faith marriage.
Condemning the incident, Telangana BJP president and Lok Sabha member Bandi Sanjay Kumar said Nagaraju was targeted because he married a Muslim woman and dubbed it as a "religious murder."
He demanded that the culprits should be identified and "the forces and organisations behind them be made public".
In a statement, he asked as to why the so-called secular parties and secular intellectuals were not responding on such a ghastly murder, even as he stated that his party is described as communal when it referred to certain religiously fanatic outfits allegedly indulging in 'love jihad".