Chennai: A 26-year-old man was hacked to death in front of his wife in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district Tuesday, allegedly for marrying the woman against the wishes of her family.
The deceased was identified as M. Karthik Pandian, a mechanic who lived in Indira Nagar in Srivillipudur municipality in the district. The police have arrested three suspects, two of whom are his wife’s brothers.
According to the police, Pandian, the son of an inter-caste couple, fell in love with Nandhini Kumari, who is from the OBC Thevar community. The couple had got married eight months ago.
“Karthik Pandian’s parents belong to the Asari caste and the Thevar caste, both OBC communities. Karthik was working in a mechanic shop in the locality where Nandhini’s family lived. They were in a romantic relationship for a while and got married around eight months ago,” a police officer investigating the case told ThePrint.
Nandhini works in a supermarket in Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district, the same locality where her family lives and where Pandian’s two-wheeler workshop is situated.
According to the FIR lodged on a complaint by Nandhini, on Tuesday night around 8.50 pm, when Pandian was waiting outside the supermarket to pick her up, three bike-borne men armed with sickles rammed into his bike.
“Karthik dragged his wife and tried to escape. However, the men caught him by his collar and started to hack him with sickles even as Nandhini tried to save him. Despite the people in the locality shouting for help, the men hacked Karthik mercilessly until he died,” reads the FIR, which ThePrint has seen.
The three accused have been identified as P. Dhanabala Murugan, 26, P. Balamurugan, 27, and S. Sudalai, 23, all from Sivakasi. Nandhini has told the police that the former two are her brothers.
Virudhunagar Superintendent of Police K. Feroze Khan Abdullah has, however, asserted that the murder cannot be termed a “caste killing” since the couple belonged to the same community.
“Nandhini’s brothers were agitated as Nandhini and Karthik had been living in the same locality as her family for the last eight months despite marrying against the wishes of her parents. This is what led to the murder,” Khan told the media, adding that it would be “inappropriate to call it a caste killing”.
Also Read: ‘Self-respect marriages in Tamil Nadu don’t need public solemnisation, says SC
‘Killed for being independent’
The police have registered a case against the three accused under Sections 294(b) (verbal abuse) and 103 (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and have arrested them.
According to the police, the investigation has revealed that Nandhini’s brothers, Dhanabala Murugan and Balamurugan, decided to kill Karthik a month ago.
“Ever since Karthik and Nandhini married against the wishes of her family, Nandhini’s brothers were angry. But they did not threaten or attempt to kill them. Just a month ago, Nandhini’s younger sister also married a man of her choice against the wishes of their family. This is what triggered them,” the police officer mentioned earlier said.
He added that the couple earning and living independently was also one of the reasons for the murder.
“Karthik and Nandhini did not move out of her parents’ locality. They were also not dependent on anybody and were living on their own without help from either of the families. This was the reason Nandhini’s younger sister also married a man of her own choice. It triggered Nandhini’s brothers,” the officer explained.
It has just been a month since Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin told the legislative assembly that there was no need to enact a new law to prevent “honour killings” in the state.
During a Special Calling Attention Motion on an attack on the CPI(M) office in the state’s Tirunelveli after an inter-caste couple sought refuge there, Stalin had told the assembly that the government was speeding up legal proceedings for cases of killings triggered by inter-caste marriages. He also said the state would appoint a special public prosecutor for such cases to speed up trials.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)