LUCKNOW: The killing of a young college girl in an alleged ‘love jihad’ case in Ballabhgarh of Haryana found its echo at Raghunathpur village in Hapur district of wester n UP on Wednesday.
The VHP, Bajrang Dal, and Karni Sena held a ‘mahapanchayat’ demanding death for the killers.
The girl was shot dead on Monday by a stalker, who was once her friend, after he failed to abduct her.
The crime was recorded in a CCTV camera. Hundreds of people from 60 villages with a sizeable Rajput population attended the panchayat to seek adequate compensation for the victim’s family and a fast-track court to try the accused.
A Hapur police officer said around 300 people participated in the three-hour meeting of the panchayat.
He said the panchayat organisers handed over a memorandum to acting SDMe Pankaj Saxena. Police force was deployed around the venue of the gathering.
Sources said the leaders of the rightwing groups said they would launch a movement if justice was denied to the woman’s family, which is originally from Raghunathpur.
The 19-year-old girl was murdered after she refused to get into the car with the accused who had been stalking her.
Both the accused Tauseef and his friend Rehan were arrested on Tuesday from Mewat.
Sources said Tauseef told the police that he killed the victim as she was planning to get married to someone else, rejecting his offer of “friendship” and conversion to Islam.
‘Fast-track court to hear murder case’
The trial against the Ballabhgarh murder case accused will be held in a fast-track court, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said on Thursday.
He also said the police have been instructed to present the challan in the case before the court at the earliest.
"The trial of the Nikita murder case will be held in a fast-track court so that the case can be heard on a daily basis and the accused is punished soon. The Faridabad police has been instructed to present the challan in the case before the court at the earliest," Vij said in a tweet in Hindi.
The police have arrested two men -- Tausif, the main accused, and Rehan -- in the case.
The victim's family has claimed that Tausif had harassed her two years ago and pressured her to convert to Islam in order to marry him, which she had refused.
The victim's family had lodged a police complaint against Tausif but withdrew it after his family members assured them that he would mend his ways.
However, Vij had on Wednesday claimed that the main accused is related to some Congress leaders in the state and it was due to pressure from them that the victim's family had withdrawn the complaint against him.
A three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) began its probe in the case on Wednesday and met the victim's family members in Ballabhgarh.
The SIT will also probe the sequence of events leading up to the killing since 2018, Vij had said.
The victim's family has demanded capital punishment for the main accused.
(With PTI Inputs)