Parents kill daughter for honour in Patiala

Over two weeks after the body of a 15-year-old girl was recovered from the Bhakra canal near here, it has emerged that her parents had strangulated her for honour and disposed the body.

After murdering their daughter and throwing her body in the canal, the parents, who hail from the nearby Samana town, had lodged a missing complaint with the police. They had even organised a protest, involving neighbours and relatives, against police inaction to evade suspicion.

Narrating the sequence of events, SSP Hardial Singh Mann told reporters on Saturday that the murder mystery of Bhavna, whose body was found in the Bhakra canal on July 10 had been solved with the arrest of her father Jai Pal, 51, and his friend Chander Prakash, who is in his forties. The mother, Suman, 46, is absconding.

The SSP said Bhavna had eloped with her boyfriend, who was a year senior to her in school, on June 30. She had returned home after three days on her parent's persuasion.

"When her mother accused Bhavna of bringing a bad name to the family, she got back by alleging that Suman was having illicit relations with Chander Parkash, who was a frequent visitor.

Enraged, the mother, father and Chander Parkash beat up Bhavna with a log. Then they strangulated her with a rope and took the body in a car to throw it in the canal," Mann said.

On July 5, Jai Pal, a small-time shopkeeper at Samana, 30 km from Patiala, informed the police that his daughter had gone missing. After two days, he met the police again and a case of kidnapping was registered. The police added murder charges with the recovery of the body from the canal near Shutrana, 35 km from Samana, on July 10.

The log used to beat the girl and the car in which the body was taken have been recovered.

UK-returned Chander Parkash is building a hotel on the Patiala-Cheeka road in Haryana's Kaithal district bordering Punjab.