In a suspected case of honour-killing, a 21-year-old Dalit man, Sankar, was allegedly murdered by his caste-Hindu wife's relatives in Udumalaipettai in Tiruppur on Sunday afternoon. He died on the way to the Coimbatore Government Hospital where his body has been kept.
The police are still investigating the case.
The caste-Hindu girl, 19-year-old Kausalya, was also severely injured in the incident. The assailants were caught on camera, and the images of the three of them on a bike with sickles in hand are doing the rounds on social media. The News Minute has been unable to independently verify the authenticity of the images at this stage.
Sankar got married to Kausalya eight months ago, according to initial reports. While Sankar was from Udumalaipettai, it is reported that the girl hailed from Palani and belonged to the influential Thevar community. Sankar was reportedly a final year engineering student at PA College of Engineering in Pollachi while Kausalya was pursuing BSc in Computer Science in the same college.
The incident happened when they both went out for shopping on Sunday afternoon. The police have formed a special team to nab the suspects.
Talking to The News Minute, Ganeshan, Sankar's cousin said, “We are pallars, also known as devendra kula vellalars. The girl is from a higher caste. The girl’s family was unhappy initially with the wedding, and they even came and threatened her 15 days ago, but the girl did not go back.”
He added, “We suspect that they were hacked due to the inter-caste marriage."
Sankar comes from a poor family. His father works as a coolie. Veluchamy, Sankar's father said, “The girl's family have been repeatedly threatening to kill Sankar. They tried to kill him two to three months back also. This is the third attempt."
“There was no money with the father to even take a bus to Coimbatore. He has borrowed money to come now,” said Ganeshan.
More details awaited.