A convicted rapist on parole and his friend battered to death two young widows in Haryana’s Bhiwani district late on Sunday night.
The police arrested Naresh Kumar who is serving jail time for rape and Subhash after they attacked and killed Suman (35) and Shakuntala (40) in full view of residents in Bhiwani’s Ranila Village. Eyewitnesses told the police the two men began thrashing the women with wooden staffs and kept battering them until they fell dead.
Later in custody, the brazen culprits told the police they had killed the widows because they were of a “loose character and were said to be indulging in prostitution”. Incredulously, Naresh was closely related to one of the victims.
“Naresh and Subhash threatened and warned other village residents against helping the widows or summoning medical help,” a police official, who reached Ranila on a phone call from the village sarpanch Rashi Sahu, said.
Suman and Shakuntala literally bled to death even as the rest of the village looked on in horror. They were also forbidden to remove the bodies from where they had fallen on the village square.
Bhiwani’s superintendent of police Ashwin Kumar said even though both culprits had been arrested, investigations were underway to determine whether the killings were instigated by any other Ranila residents.