Honour killing victim Kausalya meets Amruta

COIMBATORE: They killed her husband but they couldn’t kill her spirit. That’s why Kausalya from Tirupur travelled all the way to Hyderabad to lend courage to Amruta,

whose husband was killed by her family

, which felt its “honour” had been tainted by their inter-caste marriage.

Kausalya knows what it feels like. Her father got her husband Shankar killed for the same reason. Shankar, a dalit youth who was a final year engineering student in a private college in Pollachi, and Kausalya, a Thevar, got married on July 12, 2015. Less than a year later, he was dead: hacked to death on March 12, 2016. Kausalya’s father and six others have been sentenced to death for the horrific crime.

“I have been without him for two and a half years, all by myself. Certainly, making sure that the killers are punished is an important part of justice,” said Kausalya. But she believes more needs to be done to fight caste prejudices.

That’s why Kausalya decided to go to Hyderabad when she heard that Amruta’s husband Pranay was hacked to death on September 14 near Hyderabad by her father and relatives.

“I spent half a day with Amruta and consoled her. It is an unbearable loss for her, but she has to fight for justice. Her parents and relatives involved in the killing should be given the death penalty,” said Kausalya.

“I told Amruta that we need to dedicate ourselves as warriors of social justice to dismantle the caste system. This should be the justice that you get for Pranay,” said Kausalya. She has already started the Sankar Justice Trust to campaign against the caste systems and a more stringent laws to deter such killings.