Reactions to Honour Killings in Haryana

I received some reactions to my article on Honour Killings (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100620/edit.htm#3 ) While I am withholding the names of the friends who were candid in their assessment but I am reproducing here their views on the issue. About three-score reactions though included single word statements like, Good, Excellent, Timely, Debatable, Well-written, and so on. I thank you all. People who conveyed wholesomely wrote the following stuff:
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Thankyou for your mail. Your article on honour killings published in Tribune makes an interesting reading.
it is very sad that not just these crimes are committed but the criminals seems to derive a huge sense of pride from them and no remorse at all. It is a unique solution you are suggesting of involving media persons and I hope the pros and cons of the same are discussed in detail. It is indeed high time a stern action was taken in this regard to send the right message across.
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One of your good pieces, but not among the best ones. Honour killing is not right and if the media footages and recordings start acting as evidences, media would enjoy another power. They are already enjoying the freedom in form of sting operations and it has deteriorated the quality of journalism in India.
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Well, frankly speaking we journalists have lost the respect that we used to have almost a two decade ago. Power and money is now spinning our work and I have been a witness how things are blown out of proportion and hyped, apart from being planted. Please don't try to give us more power. If the judiciary starts taking print statements and TV footages as evidences, it would ruin this profession completely.
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In a nutshell, I disagree with your views and request you not to favour for any more powers to the journalists.
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Thank you for sending me this piece on "honour killings". I always knew that you were an enlightened and thinking member of the Haryana Jats, and of the Deswal clan in particular. With this one article you have indeed confirmed that view. Your views in this matter are almost exactly what I have thought all these days.
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I am happy too to have read this very good piece from an old friend and compatriot of the Haryana Police which, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in the recent past. This article from a serving Inspector General will surely act [in some measure] to balance off and rectify the adverse views that have weighed down the image of the Haryana Police in particular and of all lawmen in general. Doubly thankful to you - is what I am, and so too should be all right thinking policemen.
Keep up the good work.

Well written and very timely.
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Last week, two more killed in Delhi. I believe Police can play a vital role by not showing any mercy while dealing with this 'khap group', because you dont need any vote.
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This subject needs more attention in social ,religious and administrative circles. you rightly brought out the point of honor killings at the behest of families who are in turn under pressure from so called socio- regional organisation. however we have to understand the changing nature of settlements in villages and towns so that brotherhood and old values are maintained in new formats.
I read your article in The Tribune, Murder for 'Honour". It presents an intersting perspective on the issues of punishing the culprits of 'honour' killings. I believe your suggestion that the statements made by culprits in front of media and public places be counted in the wake of lack of direct evidences should be welcomed and law should be amended accordingly as we are expecting new law on the 'honour' killings.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hoping to see you more of your contributions on social issues.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sir your artcle is an exellent one,thanks
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it is really an issue which the police has got to do something. the youth has also to rise to the ocasion and must not feel shy of rising aainst the tide of honour killing. I fear there will be a stronng revolt against this type of old and outdated traditions of honour. The parents and elders in the hap are losing their honour by killing their own kids. I appreciate your views.
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Your article on Honour Killing is very timely to the point and underlined the legal discrepancies as well as the feudal and medieval mindset behind these heinous crimes. It is so sad that many innocent boys and girls are mercilessly killed at the hands of their own without scruples and with impunity in this 21st century. I have been reading articles by different enlightened persons including those by you. I hope u ll keep writing on these social issues and all such efforts need to be co ordinateed Pl accept my compliments. I am sure some of the lacunae will be taken care of in the proposed legislation against this ghastly criminal act.
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You have made a very convincing point to cite media person as witness to proveextra-judicial confession. They are professional and they have no axe to grind and their testimony will be very trustworthy like forensic evidence especially supported by media recording.
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I enjoyed reading your piece on khaps and scribe's testimony. I tend to agree with your interpretation of law. What worries me is growing tendency among politicians as a class to rationalize khaps' conduct.
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I will down load ‘Murder for Honour’ and revert.
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i read your article in yesterday's Tribune :"Murder for Honour". Argued it very well and have made a very valid point that their statement in media should be used as evidence .
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Further, u have rightly pointed out that this does amount to extra-judicial confession (Section 21 of the Evidence Act). TV footage and print media reports should help courts examine so far as proof, presumption, assumption, inference are concerned, particularly in the absence of any direct evidence.
My congratulations again. It is heartening to see Haryana Officers writing on social issues. It does give an insight of officers working towards taking the state in desired direction.
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Hope to read u more on various social issues in Haryana.
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It is time to change evidence act in the light of changing pattern of society. I definitely agree with you.
All the best -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
yes, it is matter of concern for all of us and it is our fiduciary duty to curb such incidents. you are doing wonderful job by bringing such issues in public eye....great...keep it up
a balanced piece but the ending could have been better, may be explaining (I wonder if it was for the word count limit) how petty subjects can be made less judgmental on matter sociological.
Good stuff from a great man.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Right Article on Right Time... Ho sake t HINDI News Paper me bhi print karwaa do in Hindi...as most of ppl who do all this. rarely read English paper
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Article by u ...is thought provoking and shows a mirror to society . It is so apt that you are in a position to bring about changes in society and show a new path to those who have shunned the path of mutual co-existence and harmony in the face of this horrendous crime . The crime which is not only being perpetuated by growing insanity and intolerance but the absence of remorse is more alarming .
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Very good , well articulated and result oriented write up.
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Thanks for your information about the article. A person like you who hails from the same region (Haryana) likely more concerned for the social taboo. I appreciate your views and approach towards this heinous crime .I'm still afresh of your emotional article on your late father .Since long I have been an ardent fan of your creative writing especially your high vocabulary and sentence formation which is always inspiring as well as ever imbibing.
I'm proud of you for writing this. What of the stats that most opposed supposedly same gotra marriages in Haryana have not been from the same gotra.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hope to see more articles like this. Maybe a good one on the khaps.
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Original article in The Tribune is here:

OPED
Murder for ‘honour’Scribes’ testimony enough to punish culpritsby Rajbir Deswal
THE Tribune editorial, “Killings in Delhi: Hang culprits to root out the malady” (June 17) on the murder of Asha Rani and Yogesh Kumar allegedly by the girl’s father Suresh Kumar Saini and uncle Om Parkash could not be less harsh. The gruesome lynching of lovebirds in the name of protecting honour reported frequently from various parts of the country need to be checked.
Honour, reputation, status, dignity, prestige, ranking, all make stuff for motive to do away with the lives of the violators of the above kind, when they are perceived to be transgressors of these attributes, particularly by people who still live in medieval times.
When perpetrators of crimes like honour killing defend and justify their act, they cannot be brought to justice in the normal laid down (due) process of law but a more stringent one. What else we should do with criminals who flaunt victory signs and tell the media for the record, “Yes, we did it and we feel we are justified in doing it?” Surprisingly, Suresh Kumar and Om Parkash admitted before media persons, including beaming TV cameras that what they perceived was not a crime but an act to defend their “honour and prestige”.
The killers in Delhi admitted their guilt with no regret, no compunction, no mellowed disposition of character and conviction, but with an audacious, fairly overt and expressive body language, in justifying their criminal act, in an unabashed and shameful manner, as if to claim a trophy or a citation, for upholding the so-called honour.
During the trial, these criminals will defend themselves pleading not guilty, employing various alibis, arguments and subterfuges of having been suddenly provoked, abetted, and thus having become victims of a temporary loss of sense, acting with no mens-rea but as a reflex action propelled by dyed-in-the-wool societal dire straits, blah blah blah!
In the case of honour killings as a sequel to the diktats of khap panchayats in Haryana, where the entire village community spares no witness to prosecute the perpetrators of such crime, their silent support allows no other direct, oral, forensic or circumstantial evidence to be gathered.
Where is the remedy? How can the legal process be reformed to bring such culprits to justice? How to cumulatively rely on (unavailable!) direct evidence, circumstantial evidence, oral testimony and forensic evidence to help prosecute such criminals? The time has come to reform the judicial process by incorporating some resilient but effective tools to bring such criminals to book.
The increasing trend of electronic and print media covering such incidents promptly should come handy in leading evidence. This does amount to extra-judicial confession (Section 21 of the Evidence Act). Such TV footage and print media reports should help courts examine so far as proof, presumption, assumption, inference are concerned, particularly in the absence of any direct evidence.
An extra-judicial confession, bearing on various attendant circumstances, would help courts infer the occurrence of the fact in dispute, if it is made by someone not before a magistrate or in a court, which can be proved by the witnesses who had heard the speaker’s words, constituting the confession.
In Sahoo vs. State of UP (1966), when a father-in-law killed his daughter-in-law, he said to himself, “I have finished her and with her the daily quarrels,”. This statement was held to be a valid confession because it is not necessary for the relevance of a confession that it should communicate to some other person.
Thus, the statements by accused persons like Suresh Saini and Om Prakash which are transparent confessions in their most naked, audacious and shameful form, can be proved in the court of law by citing media persons as witnesses. This writer is convinced that there is an imperative need for enacting a law for witness protection.
Clearly, media persons’ testimony is admissible as extra-judicial confession under Section 21 of the Evidence Act. If these are insulated against any onslaught and also not likely to be won over, they will generally not turn hostile and will dispose in the court of law as independent witnesses.
Not that in all cases such media persons should be cited as witnesses but certainly for cases like honour killing, when no other circumstance is obtaining, there is no harm in resorting to this alternative.
As media persons recorded the first-hand account of the conduct of the culprits, they are responsible professionals and would not be counted as interested witnesses against defence or prosecution. Their testimony with their recordings, etc. can be treated as scientific evidence and this should be deemed adequate enough for purposes of bringing the guilty to book, in a manner as if an independent third party has heard the accused admitting his guilt.
Some North-Eastern states have done this in some cases to prove insurgency and separatist inclination of certain very active and articulate advocates of ‘separatism’ intending carving out ethnic and political chunks out of India by waging war against it.
In the case of Suresh Kumar Saini and Om Parkash, even much after the crime was committed, they were on a ‘high’. It was as if they were drugged with an acquired sense of superior sensibilities in seeking to maintain and restoring their so-called honour and to appear as heroes in the perception of their relatives, caste community and social group.
The writer is the Inspector-General of Police, Haryana, Chandigarh