An assailant on a bike stabbed a man to death at the Saroornagar Tehsildar office in Hyderabad on Wednesday in a reported case of ‘honour killing’. Police have now arrested the main accused in the case, and detained other suspects, among whom are members of the girl’s family.

The couple, Nagaraju and Ashrin Sulthana (a.k.a. Pallavi), had been in a relationship for the last few years and got married on January 22 this year. ACP P Sreedhar Reddy told CNN-News18 that the brother and brother-in-law of the girl had been against the union.

Nagaraju was stabbed to death by an unknown person riding a bike at the Saroornagar Tehsildar office at 9 pm on Wednesday night. The offender ran away from the crime site and many onlookers took pictures of the dead body and videotaped the incident on their phones.

After Nagaraju’s relatives staged a demonstration, accusing his wife’s family of being behind the murder, tensions in the region have risen.

“Her family killed the youngster because they were of different religions,” one of Nagaraju’s relatives was quoted as saying by India Today

Billapuram Nagaraju (25) lived in Marredpally, Secunderabad, and worked as a salesman at a well-known car store in Malakpet, the Old City. The BJP protested following the incident, demanding justice and the arrest of the killers.

Police filed a report, and have started their investigation. ACP Sridhar Reddy said the first inquiry indicated that the killing was motivated by their love marriage.

“We’re looking at it further. Based on the investigation, I’ll provide further information,” the ACP said.

Police also said that the girl’s family was given counselling after they filed a missing person’s complaint as they were against the marriage.

“No communal angle, this is an isolated incident. The accused was against the wedding, he killed the deceased to take revenge,” police said, adding that the couple never approached them citing threat or intimidation.