The Supreme Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to frame murder charges in a case of “honour killing” of a 26-year-old man, Zia-ur-Rehman, who was in a relationship with a girl from another community whose family allegedly assaulted him.

“This is a clear case of murder…. This is a case of ‘honour killing’. Is it a crime in society if you like someone? Just because a person belonged to another faith, he was killed,” a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar orally observed during a hearing on Thursday.

The apex court also asked the state to appoint a special prosecutor who shall also take suggestions and views from the deceased’s father.

The bench noted that according to the post-mortem report, there were 10 ante-mortem injuries on the deceased’s body culminating in his death. Despite this, the police chose to register a case under IPC Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) instead of 302 (murder). Even the trial court and high court did not consider it necessary to prosecute the accused for murder.

Under IPC Section 304, the maximum sentence is a life term and the minimum sentence is five years.

In the case of IPC Section 302, the minimum punishment is a life term and the maximum sentence is the death penalty.

In this case, the Saharanpur police had registered cases under Section 304 against four accused persons of the girl’s family for allegedly beating Rehman with sticks and rods, leading to his death, as they were angry over his relationship with a girl in their family.