Accused has ‘no regret’

NEW DEHLI: An uncle accused of torturing and stabbing to death his niece and her boyfriend in India said he had no regrets over the apparent ‘honour killing’, newspapers reported on Wednesday.

Asha Saini, 19, was found dead in a low-income district of the capital New Delhi, along with her 21-year-old boyfriend Yogesh Kumar, whom she wanted to marry despite objections from her family.

Police said they had found the couple on Monday morning with their legs and arms bound, and with fatal injuries from being stabbed and given electric shocks on their hands and feet.

“I have no regrets...I will punish them all over again if given another chance,” Om Prakash, Saini’s uncle, was quoted in the Times of India (TOI) as saying when he was paraded in front of reporters on Tuesday.

Deputy Commissioner of police N S Bundela said that initial reports suggested the couple had been tortured through the night and died at about 4 am.

TOI reported that Prakash and other relatives of Saini had killed the couple because Kumar came from a lower caste in the Hindu social hierarchy.

Most’ honour killings’ in India target couples who dare to marry outside their caste and are killed by family members for bringing shame on their communities.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2010.