Man attempts to kill pregnant sister over her inter-caste marriage in Koppal

Koppal: A man allegedly attempted to kill his sister, who is four months pregnant, in Handral village on Wednesday evening. She is now undergoing treatment. According to sources, it is a case of inter-caste marriage, and the woman's family opposed her marriage to a person from another caste. Meenakshi Halligudi,22, from Chittapur village, married Udaya Talwar from the same village.Meenakshi is from the Kuruba community, while Udaya is from the Valmiki community. They fell in love and got married about a year ago. However, Meenakshi's family did not give its approval, and strongly opposed their relationship. When pressure mounted on her to leave Udaya, and unable to face resistance from her family, she and Udaya moved to Bengaluru, where they performed a registered marriage. After the marriage, Udaya and Meenakshi lived in Bengaluru and did not visit the village, fearing backlash from her family.However, on Tuesday, they came to Handral village to attend the wedding ceremony of Udaya's brother in a mass marriage function on Wednesday. Meenakshi's brother, Manjunath Halligudi, was tipped off about his sister's presence in Handral village. He rushed to the govt primary school, where a pandal was put up, and allegedly attacked his sister with a sharp axe. She sustained injuries in the sudden attack, screamed for help, and ran towards the main stage of the event. Manjunath chased her and continued to attack her, but people present at the wedding ceremony overpowered him, and stopped him from attacking her.They immediately shifted Meenakshi to the local community health centre, and then shifted her to the district hospital, police sources said.Koppal superintendent of police Ram L Arasiddi said that the issue of inter-caste marriage led to this incident. Manjunath was arrested and sent to judicial custody.The victime was attacked on her head, back, and hands. Udaya, who works in a private healthcare company in Bengaluru, filed a case against Manjunath for attempting to kill his wife. Based on his complaint, police took Manjunath into custody and handed him over to judicial custody, he said. Alavandi police registered a case. Udaya said that he had a love marriage, which his wife's family opposed. The accused, Manjunath, attacked his wife at the wedding ceremony. "I filed a complaint. As per the advice of doctors, we are now shifting Meenakshi to Hubballi for further treatment," he added.