A newly married inter-caste couple from Chennai filed a petition with the commissioner of the city police on Tuesday seeking protection, alleging that they are facing death threats from the girl’s family.

Hemanth Kumar, who works as a priest at Vinayagar temple in Mogappair and Divya, who is an OBC, from Perambur, recently got married and belong to different caste. Both were reportedly in a relationship for the last three years. Since their wedding, they have been receiving death threats from the girl’s family, they say.

Addressing the media after submitting the petition, Divya said, “We want protection, my family is saying because you are married to a person from a different caste, we will kill you. They have been threatening us like this. My family has even given a police complaint alleging that I have been kidnapped but no one has kidnapped me, I have come out on my own.”

Over the years, several inter-caste couples have faced death threats, with some of them even being murdered.

In August, Tamil Nadu government set up a special cell in Madurai district aimed at preventing honour killings. The team includes police officials from the Madurai district, the District Adi Dravida Welfare officer and District Social Welfare officer. 

In addition to this, a 24-hour helpline was to be created to receive and register complaints. The cell also had to provide assistance/advice as well as protection to the couple.

This came after Madras High Court had directed the Tamil Nadu government to implement measures to protect these couples.