A 24-year-old man was killed in public in front of his father over an inter-caste love marriage in another ‘honour’ homicide in Hyderabad.

On Friday night, Neeraj Kumar Panwar (22) was stabbed to death near the busy fish market in Begum Bazar area under Shahinayathgunj police station limits by five men who were alleged to be relatives of his wife.

After closing the shop, the young businessman and his father, Rajender Panwar, were heading home when intruders struck him from behind with a granite stone. They stabbed him with a sickle used to chop coconut as he slid down.

Panwar, a resident of Kolsawadi in Begum Bazar who worked in the retail groundnut industry, married Sanjana (20), a native of the same region but of a different caste, around one and a half years ago. They have a child who was born around a month and a half ago.

Sanjana’s family had a vengeance towards Neeraj because they were against the marriage. For the previous six months, they were allegedly plotting murder. They performed a recee for a week to track Neeraj’s activities from his shop to his home. They chose to carry out the plot because the weather was overcast on Friday and there were few people on the road.

After perpetrating the act, the offenders, who arrived on two motorcycles, fled. Neeraj was taken to the hospital, where physicians proclaimed him dead.

Traders gathered on the road and held a protest, demanding that the accused be arrested immediately and punished severely. On Saturday, they called for a bandh in Begum Bazar.

Police investigated CCTV footage and identified many suspects. Police nabbed four suspects on Saturday in Gurumitkal, Karnataka, around 150 kilometres from Hyderabad, after following various leads.

According to the victim’s relatives, he sought police a year ago asking protection from his wife’s family, who were threatening his life.

This was the second honour killing in Hyderabad in less than a month. On May 4, a 25-year-old man was hacked to death in Saroornagar over an inter-faith marriage.

Billapuram Nagaraju was murdered in public in front of his wife by her brother and another relative.

Nagaraju had married Ashrin Sultana after the latter eloped with him early this year.
(with inputs from IANS)