Man Beheads Daughter in India

After beheading his daughter Manju Kanwar and parading her head through his village in Rajasthan, India, marble miner Oghad Singh surrendered at a police station carrying the head in one hand and the bloodied sword in the other, say police.

“It was a ghastly sight,” Officer Ranjit Singh told the media. “Oghad admitted immediately that he killed his daughter because she had earned a bad name for the family.” Furthermore, police say “Oghad remains unrepentant” for killing his daughter.

Residents of Dungarji, a traditional village consisting of 1,000 people outside of Udaipur, condemned Oghad’s actions as extreme and say he was soaked in blood when he carried Kanwar’s head through the village telling neighbours what he had done.

Narayan Singh, a distant relative who took Oghad to the police station, told the media “He told me that he took the sword out, and when the daughter was all alone in the house he beheaded her with a single stroke and the head fell on the ground.”

According to police, Manju’s recent life was difficult and unorthodox for her village’s traditional community. The 20-year-old had left her husband from an arranged marriage two years ago and moved back home to live with her parents. She recently eloped with an individual two weeks ago, and her father forced her to return on Sunday, June 17 when he killed her.

According to Umesh Ojha, deputy police superintendent, Oghad did not approve of Manju dating and says, “Oghad said he was fed up with the lifestyle of his daughter.” Furthermore, Oghad accused his daughter of bringing dishonour to the family and making it hard to find husbands for her two unmarried sisters.

A coroner stitched Manju’s head onto her body for the funeral. As women are not allowed to attend funerals in many Indian villages in the north/west (as per media reports), about 100 men attended the funeral and Manju’s brother lit the funeral pyre. Manju’s mother and four sisters were unable to attend.

Image Courtesy of the Associated Press