Days after he was publicly shamed for bringing home a woman he was in love with, a Kerala man was found dead in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The body of 28-year-old Sreejith, a native of Kollam district, was found by the side of a railway track near Kottarakkara in the district by the police. The police believe it to be a case of suicide.
Sreejith’s body was found three days after the young man was publicly shamed for taking the woman he was in love with to his ancestral house in Puthoor. When the duo went to the uninhabited house last Sunday, police say that his uncle created a furore and refused to allow them to enter.
Puthoor Sub-Inspector told TNM that Sreejith’s maternal uncle, who lives nearby, refused to allow the couple to enter the house, arguing that it was not right for an unmarried couple to live together before marriage.
While media reports stated that Sreejith was a victim of moral policing, the police tried to play down the incident.
“It was not a case of moral policing per se. It was his own uncle, who was not in good terms with him, who created a ruckus. This uncle called the station on Sunday afternoon and we went to the scene. When we went there, some 10 other people had also gathered around. When we verified the details, we found that both the man and the woman were over the age of 18, so we told the others that it was not illegal if the duo wanted to spend time together. We dispersed the crowd and returned. Sreejith and the woman too left the scene in the motorbike they came in,” the SI said.
After the incident, Sreejith reportedly went back to his sister’s house in Kundara, where he lived. He left home later to go to Kattappana in Idukki district, where he worked at a massage centre. On Tuesday night, he spoke to his sister over the phone to tell her that he was coming back home.
“But by 1.30 am, we got a call that there was a body on the railway track, so we went to check. We found it to be of Sreejith. There was no suicide note on the body. We have registered a case of unnatural death,” Kottarakkara police said.