In two bizarre cases, the judgement of a khap panchayat in Shamli forced a youth to kill his sister-in-law and later end his life while in Sonebhadra, a woman and her daughter were branded as witches and tonsured by neighbours.
In Shamli, a panchayat was called in Bhawadi area of Kotwali police circle about ten days ago, after lalita (29) accused her husband Pintu of being an alcoholic, a wife-beater and not looking after her. The Panchayat decided to end laita’s miseries by marrying her off to Pintu’s younger brother Sunil.
The ‘judgement’ irked Sunil who refused to carry out the diktat. The matter took an ugly turn when lalita tried to force her brother-in-law to live with her. Agitated with this, Sunil shot lalita with a country-made pistol on Monday morning. He later ended his life by shooting himself. The two were rushed to a nearby hospital but were pronounced dead upon arrival. A case was registered and the bodies were sent for autopsy.
Meanwhile in Sonebhadra, a 70-year-old woman and her widow daughter were branded as witches and tonsured by locals after two kids died of fever last week.
As per reports, the father of the deceased children, Badal and his two aides Vinod and Ajay, tonsured Itwariya and her daughter Shyama (40) on Saturday night. They were held responsible for the deaths.
A case was registered in this regard and all three were arrested on Monday. It may be mentioned that Badal’s son Pritam (one) and daughter Archana (4) died last week of fever.