A teenager was arrested in India after police say he allegedly beheaded his 19-year-old sister as his mother held her legs, CNN reports.
Police in Vaijapur, Maharashtra told the outlet that the unnamed woman’s husband said they married against the wishes of her family and that she was two months pregnant with their child. At the time, the woman was living with her husband and she invited her mother and brother—who have also not been named by authorities—into her home for tea when they came to visit her Sunday.
“That is when the brother took a scythe and struck her four times and beheaded her. They then picked up the head and kept it outside the house in the yard and left the body inside,” Prajapati said. “The mother was holding her legs during the incident and was equally complicit.”
The woman’s husband stayed home from work Sunday because he was sick, woke up to the noise, and was able to escape the scene. The mother and brother later visited the police station to confess to the murder, before authorities found the teenager’s body on the inside of the house and the head, outside. The police report has the charges listed as murder for both the underage boy and his mother— as the teen was “sent to a juvenile home and the mother is in custody.”
A BBC report claims that police believe the mother and son may have taken a photo with the woman’s head. The family did not approve of the marriage because the man’s family was poorer than theirs, the publication shared, adding that the mother visited her daughter just a week before.
Prajapati said police are waiting to determine if the woman was pregnant. India’s National Crime Records Bureau reported 23 “honor killings”—which CNN claims the facts in the case point to—in the country in 2020. “Honor killings” are usually when male family members murder a woman in the family and claim she brought dishonor upon the family.
