Gowsalya, survivor of the 2016 Udumalaipettai caste-based killing, has accused the DMK government of failing her and delaying justice in the appeal proceedings pending before the Supreme Court since 2020. The appeal challenges the acquittal of her father Chinnasamy, the key conspirator in the murder of her husband Shankar.
Addressing a press conference on December 9 in Chennai, Gowsalya alleged that the prosecution had failed to file a petition for early hearing. When she filed a petition seeking an early hearing, which came up before the Supreme Court on December 4, the prosecution sought six months’ time to translate lower court documents from Tamil to English, following which the Supreme Court granted one year’s time and adjourned the hearing to the last week of November 2026.
“Chief Minister MK Stalin, while he was in opposition, had backed my fight for justice for Shankar. But now the State government has been stonewalling the process of securing justice. At every stage, instead of assisting me, the State has hindered the process and blocked any progress in the case,” Gowsalya told TNM.
According to her, the government’s reluctance to pursue the case is politically motivated. She alleged that the state fears losing the support of the Thevar community, to which the killers belong.
The case dates back to March 2016, when Gowsalya and her husband Shankar, an inter-caste couple, were attacked in broad daylight in Udumalaipettai, Tiruppur district. Shankar, a Dalit engineering graduate from the Pallar community, was brutally hacked to death, while Gowsalya survived with stab injuries. CCTV footage led to the arrest of five assailants, and the police later named her father Chinnasamy, mother Annalakshmi, and uncle Pandithurai as the main conspirators, charging them under the SC/ST (PoA) Act.
In 2017, a Tiruppur trial court sentenced Chinnasamy to death and gave life imprisonment to the other accused. Annalakshmi and Pandithurai were acquitted due to lack of documentary evidence.
However, in 2020, the Madras High Court acquitted Chinnasamy as well. At the time, then Opposition leader MK Stalin sharply criticised the AIADMK government for mishandling the case and promised Gowsalya that a DMK government would pursue justice, enact a special law against honour killings, and stand firmly with her.
But after coming to power, Gowsalya says the DMK government has failed to act on these promises. She alleged that the state’s lawyer in the Supreme Court has never met or consulted her, and that repeated representations by her and anti-caste organisation Evidence were ignored.
Frustrated, she filed her own petition in 2022 for an early hearing again without state support. She also criticised the DMK government’s latest move seeking six months’ time for translation of documents, terming it “highly suspicious” and asking why the work was not completed in the last five and a half years.
Expressing her disappointment, she said Chief Minister MK Stalin, who once promised unwavering support, has “abandoned” her after coming to power.
Responding to questions about the proposed separate law on honour killings and the committee formed by the state government, she said these steps initially gave her hope. However, she added that even two months after the committee’s formation, its members have not met her or any caste honour killing survivors, including herself.
She urged the Tamil Nadu government to take immediate and serious steps in the Supreme Court to ensure justice for Shankar and to secure punishment for those acquitted in the case, including her father Chinnasamy and uncle Pandithurai.