Indian beheads daughter over her ‘lifestyle choices,’ say police

Police say a man beheaded his 20-year-old daughter with a sword and paraded her severed head through his village in western India, the Associated Press reported. 

Omkar Singh was allegedly angered over his daughter Manju's affairs with several men, and murdered her Sunday evening, The Hindustan Times reported. She had been living with her parents since leaving her husband several years ago. 

"He (Singh) had asked her to mend her ways several times in the past," a local police officer told Indo Asian News Service. "However, she did not pay heed. Out of pure rage, he chopped off her head with the sword." 

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Singh then reportedly walked through the Rajasthani village of Dungarji with the head on his way to the police station, according to CNN. 

 “Omkar Singh confessed to his crime and the murder weapon has been recovered," Rajesthan's police superintendent Rahul Katkey told the Hindustan Times. "He has been arrested for murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and will be produced before the magistrate on Tuesday." 

Manju's mother, a farmer, was working in the fields at the time of the crime, and authorities told CNN she was too distraught to talk about her husband's actions. 

Earlier this month, India was ranked as the worst place to be a woman among the top 19 economies in the world by a Thomas Reuters Foundation poll. The Gender Inequality Index also ranked India as one of the worst places to live as a female, according to the Foundation. 

“In India, women and girls continue to be sold as chattels, married off as young as 10, burned alive as a result of dowry-related disputes and young girls exploited and abused as domestic slave labor,” said Gulshun Rehman, health program development adviser at Save the Children UK and a poll participant. “This is despite a groundbreakingly progressive Domestic Violence Act enacted in 2005 outlawing all forms of violence against women and girls."

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