A 23-year-old man, who was working as a photographer, was stabbed to death by the family of his Muslim girlfriend in Delhi on Thursday night in full public view. The woman's mother, father and uncle have been arrested, according to an NDTV report.
The man, Ankit, had been dating the 20-year-old woman for the past three years, against the wishes of her family, according to the police.
Around 9 pm on Thursday night, Ankit was on his way home from work when he was attacked by his girlfriend's parents, uncle and brother in West Delhi’s Khyala area. At a crossing not far from Ankit's home, they allegedly beat him before slashing him with a sharp weapon.
23 yr old man beheaded in Delhi. Was in love with a girl from the minority community. They were neighbours. Ankit went to meet the girl's family. He wanted to get married. Girl's family allegedly stabbed & beheaded him. Breaking on @IndiaToday #5live
— GAURAV C SAWANT (@gauravcsawant) February 2, 2018
Ankit's mother reportedly ran out of her home on being alerted by people, and saw her son being stabbed.
The woman's underage brother, who had also attacked him, is missing.
Honour killing in Capital!
— India Today (@IndiaToday) February 2, 2018
23-year-old Ankit stabbed, throat slit over inter-faith affair? Girl says, "My family murdered Ankit".@AninBanerjeeeee gets us the details.
Watch #IndiaFirst with @gauravcsawant live at https://t.co/4fqxBVUizL. pic.twitter.com/tApgIMxYfW
The family of the woman, identified only by her first name Shehzadi (20), was opposed to her relationship with Saxena as they were from different communities.
The woman’s mother and uncle were caught by some people at the incident site at Raghubir Nagar and handed over to police. Her father was caught by police later on Thursday and his minor brother was arrested on Friday afternoon.
Following the incident, a large contingent of police was deployed at the tense locality to prevent any communal conflagration.
Saxena and Shehzadi lived in the same neighbourhood and were in a relationship for two years. Shehzadi is a second-year undergraduate student at DU’s School of Open Learning.
According to a report, DCP (West) Vijay Singh said three of the accused from the family have been apprehended. The fourth accused is a minor and is yet to be traced. The police have shifted the body of the deceased to a local hospital where his postmortem is underway.
"During the investigation, we found that they caught and stabbed Ankit in the neck. The woman's family was against their relationship as they belonged to different communities and had warned Ankit against associating with her," the senior police official said.
The police have registered a case of murder at Khyala Police station and the questioning of the accused is underway.