CHANDIGARH: In the second honour killing in Punjab in a week’s time, a man murdered his daughter and her lover and buried their bodies near the Satluj in Buhhathad village in Taran Taran district of the state.

Gurpreet Kaur, 21, and her lover Harjeet Singh, 24, were murdered on June 13 allegedly by the girl’s father Avtar Singh and maternal uncle Jasdev Singh.

Both the accused, who were against Gurpreet’s relationship with Harjeet as he was from a ‘lower caste’, were arrested on June 15.

Shockingly, the angry kin of the murdered girl refused to take her body and the police had to perform her last rites.

Tarn Taran SP Makhan Singh said bodies of the couple were dug out following confession of the girl’s father.

“We have also been conducting raids to nab two other suspects in the case,” said Singh.

The gruesome killings had come to light when Mukhtar Singh, father of Harjeet, approached the police and lodged a complaint that his son had gone missing on June 13.

Police officials said that it came to light during investigation that Gurpreet Kaur of the same village was also missing since that day and both were romantically involved.

Officials said when Avtar Singh was rounded up for questioning, he confessed that he and his brother-in-law had abducted the youth and strangulated him and killed his daughter.

Gurpreet and Harjeet were in love for the last six years and used to meet each other during night hours, sources added.

Police said that Harjeet was abducted from the fields and killed there on the night of June 13, Gurpreet was murdered at her house by the accused the same night.

Earlier, Sukhbir Singh of Patiala district was arrested on June 9 for killing his daughter for having an affair with a ‘low caste’ youth. Singh had murdered his daughter and thrown her body in a canal near Patiala in September, 2011, and lodged a false case against the lover of his daughter and three others.