Honour killing: Father kills daughter
HYDERABAD: In yet another suspected case of honour killing, a father forced his daughter to consume pesticide for allegedly falling in love with a person of another caste in the neighbouring Mahabubnagar district.
Though it was alleged that the girl was killed for falling in love, the girl's relatives complained that she was killed as her father and stepmother does not want to bear the burden of performing her marriage.
The incident took place in Vatvarlapally village on the Hyderabad-Srisailam road late Monday night. The 16-year-old girl, Padma, recently completed her SSC.
Her father D Mallaiah was an agriculturalist. Mallaiah was married thrice and the victim is the daughter of his first wife.
According to police, Mallaiah suspected that the girl fell in love with a boy of the same village. “We are yet to ascertain whether the girl was in love with the boy or not,” Amrabad DSP P Karunakar said. Locals, however, alleged that Mallaiah was angry that his daughter fell in love with a boy who does not belong to their caste.
On Monday night, Mallaiah and his wife Tirupatamma forced the girl to consume pesticide in the house.
She died within minutes after consuming the pesticide.
Villagers informed the matter to the girl's relatives who in turn called the police on Tuesday morning.
“The girl's relatives complained that she was killed by her parents as they felt it was a burden to perform her marriage,'' Karunakar said.
Police registered a case and investigations are on
Ariz. Honor Killing: Police Worried Family Members Might Have Tried to Attack Daughter Again
In 2009, 20-year-old Noor Al-Maleki was killed after her father, Faleh Al-Maleki, ran her over with his car in Peoria, Ariz. She suffered multiple injuries and went into a coma. She was taken off life support and died less than two weeks later.
Prosecutors said it was an honor killing, because the Iraqi-born young woman who immigrated to the United States had become “too Westernized” and brought shame to the family for eschewing traditional Iraqi values — shunning an arranged marriage and instead living with a boyfriend and his parents.
In February, Faleh was found not guilty of murder in the first degree, but was convicted of murder in the second degree. He is currently serving a 34 1/2 year sentence.
Now, audio records obtained by Fox News show that police believed Noor would be attacked again by family members, even as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed.
In one tape, Peoria police detective Bill Laing refuses to tell Noor’s mother, Seham Al-Maleki, where her daughter was until her father — who at first fled to the United Kingdom before being extradited back — was found. Laing tells Seham that her husband ran over Noor and her friend Amal Khalaf:
“I want to see my daughter!” Seham Al-Maleki screams on the tape.
“Until he [Noor’s father] is located, we are not mentioning where she is at,” responds Laing, who told the mother that witnesses in the parking lot identified her husband as the driver.
“This woman, she is lying, because she is dirty,” Seham says, referring to Noor’s friend Khalaf, who survived being hit by Al-Maleki’s jeep.
“You are a sick person,” Laing snaps.
Mohamed El-Sharkawy of the Arizona Muslim Police Advisory Board told Fox News that authorities worried another family member might try to attack Noor again to be sure she was dead.
“They were afraid that, because he did not succeed, that somebody else, his son or a relative, will go and finish her off,” El-Sharkawy said.
Faleh Al-Maleki was convicted of second-degree murder for his daughter's killing. (Fox News)
Although Faleh was convicted of second-degree murder, because he was acquitted of first-degree murder, prosecutor Laura Reckart told Fox in an interview that she felt she had ultimately “failed” Noor.
“I’m not going to say I respect their verdict,” Reckart said.
During the trial, she played recorded prison phone calls of Faleh talking with his wife, discussing how “an Iraqi without honor is nothing” and even though he was in jail, Noor “is comfortable now” in her grave.
Still, Judge Roland Steinle told Fox he believed it was wrong to classify Noor’s murder as an honor killing:
“I think it sensationalizes what is nothing more than a parent killing a child,” he said.
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