Wife’s brother, vengeful gang join arms, murder Dalit man

CHENNAI: In yet another chilling case of honour killing, this time in the capital itself, a 22-year-old Dalit man was hacked to death by his wife’s elder brother on Saturday night at Pallikaranai. The youth had done a self-respect marriage with the woman from an OBC community only four months ago.

The police suspect that the elder brother joined hands with another gang which was waiting to exact revenge on the victim for a murder in 2022.

The deceased was identified as G Pravin alias Ashiq. On October 19 last year, he married D Sharmila (20) of Jalladanpet near Medavakkam against the wishes of her family. After remaining in hiding for a couple of months, the couple started living in Pravin’s house in Ambedkar Street, Pallikaranai. Pravin, a school dropout, assisted his father, V Gopi, a bike mechanic, while Sharmila continued her college studies.

“There were threats from the woman’s family even on the day of their wedding. Once they came to the house and we have now heard that her father and brother tried to meet Sharmila at her college last week,” said Kaviarasu, Pravin’s neighbour.

On Saturday night, Pravin left home around 8.30 pm to buy fried rice for the family. “One of his friends came home crying. I could not understand what was happening and tried calling him. But, his phone was not reachable. Then a policeman came home and took all the details about my husband. Only then it was revealed to me that he was murdered,” Sharmila told media persons while waiting for the mortal remains of her husband to reach home.

“They (policemen) said my brother was one of the accused in the murder. Why? I am living a happy life. What is his problem with how I live,” Sharmila said. The two of them were in a relationship for seven years and Sharmila left home when her family started to look for alliances for her.

Victim’s wife points to caste as main reason

“My family gave a police complaint. I went to the station and gave in writing that I came of my own volition. There also my brothers threatened us. The threats continued, but I assumed he was doing it to vent out and things would be normal. I did not expect him to act on his threats,” Sharmila said.

When asked why the family opposed their relationship, Sharmila said, “Caste”. Sharmila’s brother, D Dinesh (23), joined hands with a gang that was waiting to exact revenge on Pravin in connection with a 2022 murder. The others arrested were identified as R Stephen Kumar (24), B Jothi Lingam (25), S Vishnu Raj (25) and N Sriram (18). Pravin was named as an accused in the murder of Bright Allwyn (22).

According to police records, Allwyn and another youth, Sasikumar, had an issue over Allwyn trying to boss over students of his college. Pravin who was known to both of them had asked Allwyn to come for a meeting and when the meet happened, Allwyn was hacked to death.

“The gang in fact used the same modus operandi in executing the murder,” said a senior police officer with Tambaram city police. “Pravin got a call from a youth, Sriram, and when he went to meet him, the other accused, who were Allwyn’s friends, murdered Pravin. Like Allwyn’s murder, Pravin, too, was hacked on the head and neck,” said a police officer.

Pallikaranai Police registered a case under section 302 (murder) of IPC and section 3 (2) (v) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The accused were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.