Honour Killing: Tamil Nadu Inter-Caste Couple Murdered and Bodies Dumped In Cauvery

In yet another suspected case of ‘honour killing’ in Tamil Nadu, a young couple - Hindu Adi Dravidar boy and a Hindu Vanniyar girl- were allegedly murdered by the bride’s family members in Dharmapuri for marrying in defiance of caste based restrictions, The Hindu has reported.

The Karnataka police recovered a highly decomposed body of Nandhish, 25 on Wednesday (14 November) from the Cauvery near Shivanasamudra. His wife Swati’s body was fished out from a nearby spot in a similar condition the next day.

Nandhish and Swati, who both hail from Soodakondapalli village in Bagalur, eloped and married in a temple at Shoolagiri on 15 August. They registered their marriage in September. The couple then moved out of village and started living in Hosur, where Nandhish was employed as a painter in a timber mart.

The Hosur police began investigating on a missing person’s report filed by Nandhish’s brother Sankar. In his compliant, Sankar said that Nandhish and Swati had gone to buy clothes and visit a relative in a nearby village in Hosur on 10 November but they never returned home.

According to preliminary investigation, Initially the girl’s family assured the couple that their marriage has been accepted and a ceremony would be held as per their customs.

During investigations, Srinivas, Swathi’s father allegedly confessed that he along with other family members murdered the duo. They were abducted in a multi-utility vehicle, taken to Shimsha, humiliated, strangled to death, and their bodies dumped in the river.

Tamil Nadu has been notorious for caste-based honour killings. In less than three years before 2016, the state had witnessed 81 incidents of honour killing. In all these incidents, 80 per cent of the victims were women.

The state government is accused of slipping the issue under carpet despite rising number of such incidents. It had also failed to submit a report on the matter to Supreme Court even after 22 states had done so.