Chandigarh: Declaring ‘honour killings’ an attack on the very foundations of civilised society, a local court in Haryana has sentenced two brothers to life imprisonment for the brutal 2017 murder of their sister’s husband over a love marriage.The Kaithal district court was deeply disturbed by the fact that the killing was not the result of a sudden provocation or personal enmity, but a calculated act, committed in the name of so-called ‘family honour’.“The crime committed was brutal, premeditated, and driven by misplaced notions of honour, for which there can be no justification. The punishment must reflect the collective conscience of society and send a clear message that ‘honour killings’ have no place in a civilised society governed by the rule of law,” the trial court said in its order on Saturday.Additional sessions judge Dr Nandita Kaushik awarded life imprisonment to brothers Sunil, 27, and Dilbagh, 31, residents of Dindoli village, Jind, for killing Balinder Singh, the husband of their sister Pooja.Deputy district attorney Sukhdeep Singh Grewal said Dilbagh and Sunil killed Balinder at Jawahar Park in Kaithal on Oct 18, 2017, as they were unhappy with the love marriage of their sister in 2014.Balinder, of Koel village, and Pooja had a two-and-a-half-year-old son at that time of the murder. The child is now an orphan as Pooja, too, has died.On the fateful day, the brothers called Balinder to Kaithal after taking their mother into confidence. The couple and Pooja’s brothers met at a park where Sunil and Dilbagh shot Balinder, said Grewal.An FIR was registered on the complaint of Balinder’s brother. On Saturday, the court convicted both the accused after the prosecution succeeded in proving their role in the crime.During argument on the quantum of the sentence, the accused’s counsel requested leniency in punishment, submitting that the brothers are young, first-time offenders with no prior criminal antecedents. The mother and sister of the accused had died during the proceedings of the case and the family had already suffered irreparable social and emotional damage, the counsels said, pleading that awarding severe punishment would serve no greater purpose of justice but would only perpetuate the cycle of suffering. The defence counsel requested the court to take a compassionate and reformative view.While awarding the sentence, judge Nandita Kaushik observed that Balinder’s murder not only extinguished the life of a young man but triggered a domino effect that led to the total collapse of familial and social stability for their own sister, Pooja.“She was first rendered a widow, then allegedly forced into another marriage, and ultimately lost her life as well. The convicts, in pursuit of a misguided notion of honour, not only took the life of Balinder but irreparably damaged the future of their sister and devastated the life of an innocent child whose childhood has now been engulfed in loss, trauma, and instability,” the judge said in her order.“The minor child, who already suffered the death of his father, then separation from his mother’s family, now finds himself back in the complainant’s family, carrying the burden of a broken lineage and an uncertain future,” observed the judge in its detailed order. The court ordered life imprisonment for both brothers and directed them to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, which will be divided equally between Balinder’s aged mother, Sona Devi, and his minor son.
