Bengaluru Rural police are investigating if a woman’s death was a caste killing, after her boyfriend alleged that her parents were against their relationship. Sahana, a 20-year-old, drowned in Huskur lake, in Ramohalli, on Tuesday, February 12. She was working at a private company in Kudlu Gate, Bengaluru.
According to the police, her father Ramamurthy came to the Hebbagodi police station in panic on Tuesday, saying that he and his daughter fell into the Huskur lake. He reportedly told the police that he lost control of the bike due to microsleep as he hadn’t slept the night before.
However, Sahana’s boyfriend Nitin told the media that the two of them had been in love for a year and that her parents were opposed to them getting married.
On Monday, Ramamurthy called Nitin to a friend’s house where he refused to allow them to get married.
Nithin’s friend Madan Kumar told TNM that Sahana and Nitin had been in a relationship for about one-and-a-half years after meeting through mutual friends. He said that she was of the Kuruba caste and Nitin was a Naidu.
He said that Sahana had been working to support her family since she completed pre-university. Nitin, who has completed a BCom degree, had applied for a government job, Madan said.
Asked if they suspected an ‘honour killing’, Hebbagodi police told TNM that the father had come running into the police station talking about the accident. “But since (Nitin) has made such remarks, we are investigating. We will know more after we get the post-mortem report.”