Inter-caste lovers found hanging
Trichy: A 19-year-old dalit youth and a 17-year-old girl belonging to MBC (most backward class) were found dead in an alleged suicide near Tharangambadi in Mayiladuthurai district on Tuesday.
The youth’s relatives claimed it was a ‘caste-related killing,’ and resorted to vandalism. Police have arrested five people, including the girl’s father, under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The bodies of the youth, identified as M Parthiban from Puthupalayam village, and the minor girl, a resident of Sathangudi, were recovered from a shed a few hundred metres from the girl’s house. Parthiban was a mason, while the girl had recently completed her Class XII and was preparing to join college. They were in a relationship for two years, but the girl’s family strongly opposed it.
On Monday night, Parthiban filed a complaint at Poraiyar station, alleging that the girl’s father and her relatives had assaulted him and abused him with caste slurs. In the morning, the girl’s father, Lakshmikanthan, lodged a complaint stating that his daughter was missing. Later, the couple were found hanging inside a shed. Police sent the bodies to Mayiladuthurai Government Hospital for post-mortem examination.
Parthiban’s relatives alleged that the girl’s family members had murdered him. Dozens of them gathered in Sathangudi and vandalised the girl’s house as well as the house of another relative. Acting on the instructions of Mayiladuthurai superintendent of police in-charge G Stalin, Poraiyar police arrested the girl’s father Lakshmikanthan and four of his relatives — Surya, Manimaran, Vasanthan, and Vijaya Kumar.
The suspects were charged under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and presented before a magistrate who remanded them to judicial custody. VCK members joined Parthiban’s relatives in claiming that the couple had been murdered in a ‘caste killing’. “There were no external injuries on the victims’ bodies to confirm that they were murdered,” the SP in charge told TOI.
Mayiladuthurai police have deployed personnel in Sathangudi in the aftermath of the deaths. In the evening, around hundred people including VCK, communist parties, Parthiban’s relatives and villagers from Puthupalayam were detained after they blocked the road near Tharangambadi seeking justice. The SP said they are monitoring the situation and increasing the police strength at night to prevent further violence.
Courtesy : TOI
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