Indian police have arrested a man and accused him of beheading his own teenage daughter enraged by her relationship with another man she disliked, BBC News reported on Thursday, in what appears to be the latest case horrible of the so-called “kill for honor” in the Asian nation. Police in northern Uttar Pradesh state said Sarvesh Kumar was arrested as he walked to the local police station carrying his daughter’s head.
BBC News said local police released a video of Kumar confessing to the crime, in which he explains that he was enraged to learn of his daughter’s relationship, came home to find her alone, save her in a room and beheaded her with a sharp object. .
Neighbors reported to police the sight of Kumar apparently carrying his daughter’s head through his Hardoi district on Wednesday after committing the alleged crime.
Sanjeev Verma / Hindustan Times / Getty
Honor crimes are important problem in India, neighbor Pakistan, and other countries where family members – often women and girls – are attacked and even murdered by their relatives for incorporating the perceived shame into the family. These crimes are more common in rural communities where centuries-old traditions and deep-rooted cultural norms still dictate the rules of everyday life.
According to the BBC, although there are no official statistics, it is believed that every year hundreds of people die in India by family members from relationships or marriages that went against the wishes of their parents or other elderly people.
Honor crime is just one aspect of a much broader problem of violence against women and girls that India has been facing for years. The BBC said statistics compiled by the National Crime Records Office of India show that more crimes against women were committed last year in Uttar Pradesh than any other Indian state.
In March 2020, India hanged four men for the brutal gang rape of a paramedic student in Delhi in 2012. The rape and murder of the 23-year-old woman sparked massive street protests across the country. India and attracted worldwide attention on the situation of women in India. .
But CBS News’ Arshad R. Zargar reported that little has changed despite the influx of public outrage. Government data released in September 2020 showing an average of 87 violations were reported every day in the previous year, an increase of more than 7% over 2018.
In January, an Indian court ruling that beating a child cannot be considered sexual assault as long as there is no “skin-to-skin contact” or “sexual intent” was widely criticized by rights activists.
The sentencing of Bombay High Court Judge Pushpa V. Ganediwala authorized a 39-year-old man who had been accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in 2016 for crimes.