Tamil Nadu: Dalit youth kills vanniyar lover after her parents choose another groom

KALLAKURICHI: A 21-year-old dalit youth, his minor brother and a friend were arrested on Thursday on charges of strangling his lover to death in a village near Ulundurpet in Kallakurichi district. The dalit youth murdered the 18-year-old vanniyar girl after she broke up with him and decided to marry a person chosen by her parents from their own community, police said.


Those arrested were identified as P Rangasamy, R Raveendran, 26 and Rangasamy's 16-year-old brother hailing from a dalit colony in the village. Police produced them before a magistrate who remanded Rangasamy and Raveendran in judicial custody while sending the minor boy to an observation home. PMK founder S Ramadoss demanded that police invoke stringent sections of relevant acts including IPC against the three men, who murdered the teen girl. He urged the government to book the three under Goondas Act.

Police said M Saraswathi, a nursing student was found dead near her house on April 1. Police began inquiries following a complaint by her brother M Veeramani. Inquiries revealed that Rangasamy and Saraswathi were in love for the past two years. Rangasamy disappeared from the day the girl was found dead, leading to suspicions about his involvement in her death. A police team managed to trace him and Raveendran hiding under a bridge in the district and arrested the duo.

“Raveendran confessed to murdering the teen girl by strangling her using her dupatta. He said he met her near her house in the wee hours of April 2 and urged her to elope with him to get married,” said Thirunavalur police inspector S Sreenivasan.

“But the girl refused to heed his demand and said she wanted to break their relationship as she decided to marry a person chosen by her parents from her own community,” said the inspector.

This irked the dalit youth and he with the help of his friend and minor brother strangled her to death using her dupatta, said inspector Sreenivasan.

Thirunavalur police registered a case under IPC sections 302 (punishment for murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence or giving false information to screen offender), 404 (dishonest misappropriation of property possessed by deceased person at the time of his death) and 294 (b) (obscene acts and songs) and arrested them.