Informal village councils that dominate northern India came under scrutiny yesterday after the arrest of a 19-year-old girl and her lover who are accused of murdering seven of her family, including her parents and grandmother, because they would not let the couple marry.
Sonam and her boyfriend, Naveen, 20, were accused of drugging the victims with a sedative in their chapatis, and strangling them in their home in the northern state of Haryana on September 14.
The murders are the latest in a recent litany of violent crimes linked to informal yet powerful village councils that enforce caste purity and regulate marital relations across much of northern India.
What is unusual is that the young lovers are the alleged culprits, rather than the victims.
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