Chennai
On Sunday, Shankar and his wife C Kowsalya, who belonged to an upper-caste was attacked by a three-member gang armed with sickles in broad daylight near the busy bus stand in Udumalpet in Tiruppur district, which resulted in the youth’s death.
Both Shankar and Kowsalya, students of a private engineering college got married about eight months ago despite stiff opposition from the girl’s family. Six special teams have been formed to nab the culprits and as per latest reports two suspects have been detained.
Meanwhile, Kowsalya’s father Chinnasamy surrendered before the Judicial Magistrate at Nilakottai in Dindigul. Heavy police bundobust was provided at Komaralingam, the victim’s native village and Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) where Shankar’s body has been kept. Kowsalya is being treated for the lacerations in the same hospital.
The victim’s relatives also resorted to road blockade and protests demanding immediate arrest of the culprits. “Even after the marriage, the couple was continuously harassed by the girl’s parents and three months back Kowsalya was abducted by her grandfather and was kept locked in a house in Usilampatti,” A Kathir, Executive Director of Evidence, a Madurai-based human rights organisation told DT Next .
To know the actual turn of events that lead to this ‘honour killing’, Kathir visited Shankar’s native village Komaralingam. “But after Shankar filed a complaint, the police rescued Kowsalya and united her with Shankar,” he said and added that even last week the girl’s relatives threatened her to leave Shankar or face death. Kathir says, even though this turbulent turn of events suggested the disaster in the offing, the police were just unmindful.
“I firmly believe this ‘honour killing’ could’ve been prevented if the police were alert,” he said. Kathir and his team have so far documented about 81 cases of ‘honour killings’ (including the case in hand) in the state during the last three years. In 80% of the cases, women are murdered and the perpetrators belong to dominant castes.
There are also instances when ‘honour killings’ occurred even after two years of marriage signifying the deep-rooted discrimination. “The actual figures might be much more than this as many such cases are passed off as suicide or unnatural death,” Kathir said. He also informed that majority of the documented ‘honour killings’ are reported from Ramanathapuram, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Udumalpet. Kathir also charged that the absence of a separate legal provision to deal with ‘honour killings’ is being exploited by the caste Hindus.
Despite the allegations of widespread ‘honour killings’ in the state, the government maintains that there is no such thing as ‘honour killing’ in the state and plays it down as mere caste issue. Since ‘honour killing’ is considered a complex cultural crime, activists demand that it should not be dismissed as mere murders.
P Sampath, President of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) told DT Next that it is unfortunate that the government refuses to accept the presence of ‘honour killings’ in the state. “It is gross injustice to investigate and try the case under the general categories of homicide or murder as the issue is a complex one and needs separate legal provision to deal with it,” he said.
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