Another couple seeks police cover

V Nirmala, a native of Chidambaram in Cuddalore and her Dalit husband Vetriselvan, a native of Vandavasi, Tiruvannamalai, had been living in Arumbakkam in Chennai after they got married on November 11, 2013 against the wishes of Nirmala’s family. Since then the couple was threatened by Nirmala’s parents and relatives who belong to the Arundhathiyar community. 

According to the complainant Nirmala, she had been abducted by her family members on several occasions and she managed to escape from her house to come back to Chennai. “They threaten to kill us if I did not return to my parents. We have been living in fear for the last two years due to continuous threats from my family to me, my husband and his family.  They threaten to book cases against my husband and eliminate the whole family,” Nirmala told the reporters at Police Commissioner’s office on Friday. 

Nirmala said her parents objected to their marriage and tried to intimidate her husband even before their marriage. “My father Panneerselvam, my mother Rani and my sister’s husband used to abduct me when my husband went for work. They then took me forcefully to my parents’ house and I had to escape from there several times. 

Even now they insist that I abandon Vetriselvan and go with them,” Nirmala said. During one of such abductions, her parents also forced her to abort her baby. “They forced me and aborted my pregnancy against my wishes. I have suffered enough for marrying this person I love,” she said.

A 20-year-old college student surrendered before a Judicial Magistrate’s Court in Nilakottai, here on Friday in connection with the sensational honour killing of Dalit youth Shankar on March 13. The second-year B Com student of a private college in Udumalpet surrendered before Nilakottai Judicial Magistrate (JM) B Risana Parveen, who remanded him to seven-day judicial custody.  The judge ordered the police to produce him before the Judicial Magistrate Court in Udumalpet on March 23 and detain him in a Juvenile Home at Melur in Madurai district, till then. The youth hailed from Palani in Dindigul district and his involvement was suspected in the murder of V Shankar. It may be recalled that the slain Dalit youth’s father-in-law Chinnasamy (48), the prime accused in the murder case, surrendered before Nilakottai Judicial Magistrate Court on March 14. He was presently lodged in Madurai Central Prison. Shankar was murdered by an armed gang for eloping with Kausalya in Udumalpet.