The News Minute | November 14, 2014 | 11:40 am IST
Last Saturday night, retired teacher Sukumaran and his family woke up with a start as a loud explosion shattered their sleep. Everyone in the house hid for sometime, even as the attackers pelted stones and left in three bikes.
Sukumaran’s family in Kozhikode came under attack for his 24-year-old son Gautham’s love affair and marriage to his girl friend Anshida.
He is Hindu, she is Muslim. Both have known each other since childhood, their love affair being seen as an aberration by many.
Over the past few days, there has been a lot of attention on the couple’s plight, but in spite of the widespread support, they say they don’t feel any safer.
“We fell in love couple of years back, but it was evident to us later that her parents will never agree, so we eloped in January this year,” says Gautham.
What followed was eleven months of absolute terror for the couple. They first fled to Bangalore. “When I heard my 23-year-old son had eloped with a girl, I thought he was being immature. I approached the girl’s family and we set on a group search,” says Sukumaran.
But the four day search in Bangalore turned out to be a frightening experience for Gautham’s family as ‘menacing looking men on bikes’ joined the search for the couple.
Little did Sukumaran know that ‘quotation gangs’ had been given the job of tracking the couple down, with an intent to harm Gautham.
“We stopped searching for them and also realised that the girl’s family was against their relationship. We suspected that people with links to NDF, PFI were amongst those searching for my child. Though, I am very sure that the organisation was not involved, there were people who claim they had connections,” says Sukumaran.
For weeks, Gautham and his Anshi were on the run. In March, when Sukumaran approached CPI (M), the couple were moved to Kochi, and made to live with a CPI(M) area committee member.
“There were times I wanted to go back home, get married, but I was scared. A vicious social media campaign had started against us and my friends warned me not to move out. We had changed our phones, SIM cards. We did try contacting her family, but they too had changed numbers. They did not want us to contact them it seems,” Gautham said.
“Some advised me to take help from the RSS. Though I didn’t approach the organisation, those in my area with RSS links said Anshi will have to convert, so we did not pursue with that,” says Sukumaran.
In October, they finally mustered courage to go home. On October 8, their marriage was officially registered , as per the Special Marriages Act, but the threats did not stop even after this. The attack on their home has left this family traumatized, the online trolling has just increased.
This one says that girl ran away with a boy called Rakesh (Gautham doesn't know why his name has been changed) and says her father is suffering to pay the Rs 18 lakh educational loan, his house set to be mortgaged.
Tomorrow your judgement day will come and you will have no justifications.
The inter-caste couple who got married in the office of CPI (M), a new marriage broker.
Many pictures like these being circulated on social media were accompanied by comments threatening the couple.
“CPI(M) workers, some friends guard the house each night, but how long should we live in fear,” asks Gautham.
