By Express News Service
BHOPAL: An enduring feud linked to tribal tradition of monetary compensation being paid by the boy’s family to a girl’s family over eloping resulted in four murders on Diwali evening in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh.
Four men, identified Small Ningwal and Sukhdev Ningwal (both from the boy’s family) and Bhalsing and Nanbu (both from the girl’s family) were killed in a clash between the families in Bokadia village under Chandpur police station of Alirajpur district on Thursday evening.
The clash was a result of a year and a half long feud between the two families (both Bhilala tribal families) following the eloping of a young couple. The girl eloped with the young man from the other family along with her mother’s silver jewellery a year and are now residing in adjoining Gujarat. Since then, both the families have been at loggerheads.
As part of the uncanny tribal tradition of “tor” (penalty to be paid by the boy’s family to girl’s family in cases of elopement) a Bhilala caste panchayat recently ordered the young man’s family to pay Rs 1.5 lakh to the other. They paid a large part of the ordered sum already. But the girl’s family on Thursday evening, started demanding back the silver jewellery with which she eloped with.
The noisy verbal altercation suddenly turned violent and both families attacked each other with sharp-edged tribal weapons, resulting in the killing of two men each from both sides.
“Coming to know about the clash, heavy police force was rushed to the village and situation brought under control,” Alirajpur district police superintendent Manoj Kumar Singh told on Friday.
Acting in the matter, police lodged case of murder and crime with common intent against nine persons (four from one family and five from the other). All the accused were arrested on Friday.
