A 28-year old man from Hyderabad was allegedly abducted and killed by relatives of his wife late on Thursday night, the police said. The incident is being viewed as a hate crime.

The scarred body of the victim, said police, was found at an isolated place in Telangana’s Sangareddy district in the early hours of Friday.

Madhapur deputy commissioner of police M Venkateshwarlu told reporters that the victim was beaten up by the relatives of his wife and his body was dumped in the fields.

“Though the couple is from an upper caste, the victim was not financially strong. The girl’s parents, on the other hand, are rich,” the police said.

The couple had known each other for four years. On June 10, the girl left her parents’ house and married the victim at a temple. The couple had been staying independently,” Venkateshwarlu said.

Later, the girl filed a complaint with the Cyberabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar, claiming threat to her husband’s life from her parents.

“The Chandanagar police called the girl’s father and his relatives and counselled them against causing any harm to the man and his parents,” the DCP said.

On Thursday evening, around 10 people came in three different vehicles to the victim’s house and forced the couple to come with them for negotiations with his parents, said the police. However, the girl managed to escape and immediately alerted her in-laws and they, in turn, alerted the police.

“We booked a case of abduction at Gachibowli police station in the evening and started searching for the man and the abductors. Finally, we found his body on Friday morning,” the DCP said.

He said the police had arrested 13 persons, including teh girl’s maternal uncle, who had confessed to have committed the murder.

The victim’s father said that the girl’s family was against the match.

“But we had to accept their marriage after they convinced us. But her family resisted the affair and she was forced to marry him secretly,” said the victim’s father.

The girl lamented that her parents had chosen to kill her husband.

“They had a problem with me and so they should have killed me. I did not expect anything from parents,” the girl claimed.