Faridkot honour killing: Death sentence for 4 of girl’s family

Faridkot, October 28
The court of the Faridkot District and Sessions Judge today awarded death penalty to four persons accused in a case of honour killing in September 2009.

The court found Gurmukh Singh, Gurnaib Singh, Resham Singh and Kulbir Sharma, the cousins and uncle of Manpreet Kaur of Bhagthala Kalan village adjoining Faridkot, guilty of killing Gurpreet Singh after he married Manpreet against her family members’ wishes.

Gurpreet Singh (25), had eloped with Manpreet Kaur and they got married in November 2008. For the next 11 months, the couple stayed at different places to escape the wrath of the latter’s family members, Gurpreet’s brother Kuldeep Singh said.

After some time, on assuming that Manpreet’s family had reconciled to the marriage, the couple returned to Faridkot and started living in Guru Nanak Colony.

On the evening of September 20, 2009, when Gurpreet, his brother Kuldeep and a cousin were riding back on their motorcycles from the Baba Farid Mela, Gurpreet was waylaid by four persons in a car. The accused allegedly attacked Gurpreet with sharp-edged weapons, a hockey stick and a double-barrel gun and killed him after chasing him in the colony.

The Faridkot Police had booked the four for murder on the complaint of Kuldeep Singh, Gurpreet’s brother.

Pronouncing the death sentence, judge Fateh Deep Singh cited a Supreme Court observation that death penalty should be the punishment for honour killing.

In a dramatic twist during the trial, Manpreet Kaur sought to give a clean chit to the accused, saying the murder of her husband was not an honour killing crime. In her testimony, she claimed that her family had accepted their marriage after some time and even gave her dowry. However, on the basis of the testimony of the prime witness in the case, the court held the four guilty of the honour killing.