Nandhini’s big heart cost her life: Family

CHENNAI: When friends and even the family of the accused, Vetrimaran, cut off ties with him after he chose to identify as a trans man, R Nandhini continued to be a friend. “We could not come to terms with the fact that it was her empathy which got her murdered,” the victim’s elder sister, Amudha told DT Next.

Every night, Nandhini’s routine was to call her family after work and talk about her day. Friday being the eve of her birthday (she was 27), they were awaiting her phone call. However, the call they received was from the police.

Also Read: Childhood mate’s brutal b’day gift: Chained, burnt alive

When a policeman called Amudha and asked her details about Nandhini, she was worried about her safety but did not imagine the worst. She answered all his questions but kept questioning him back. So, the policeman broke the news about her sister’s death and asked the family to come to Chennai.

Amudha had, in fact, reached out to the accused to assist relatives in Chennai, while she, along with her parents, travelled from Madurai. Nandhini, she said, was friends with the accused since Class 1. According to the family members, three girls, including Nandhini, and the accused used to be close friends.

The other girl’s family had asked her to cut off ties with Vetrimaran when they finished school after he started identifying as a man, but Nandhini did not want to hurt her friend and chose to remain in touch with him.

Nandhini pursued college in Madurai itself, while Vetrimaran moved out of the district in 2019 and was staying elsewhere. “Whenever Vetrimaran would visit Madurai, he would visit our home. I’ve often fed him with my own hands,” Amudha told DT Next.

Despite the personal loss, the victim’s father, Raveendran (62), an employee of a hardware store in Madurai, was very poised when he told a news channel that he did not suspect Vetrimaran of any wrongdoing and that he did not wish to hurt his family with words.

“My daughter had continued the friendship with Vetrimaran on a humanitarian basis. We, as a family, did not have any problem with that. Also, she did not complain of any ill intentions from Vetrimaran. But, seeing her burnt body and the aspersions cast on her through media reports, it hurts a lot,” Raveendran told this reporter, while waiting outside the mortuary in Chromepet Government Hospital on Sunday.

Family members were inconsolable outside the mortuary, and they couldn’t believe at the brutality Nandhini had to endure. “We saw her burnt body with hands and legs being chained. Is that a way to die? It’s difficult to come to terms with the way her life ended in such a cruel way,” Moorthy, a relative said.

Police investigations revealed that Vetrimaran had plotted the murder for a week and was well prepared.

“There were cut marks on the victim’s wrist. His behaviour throughout the day — taking her to the orphanage and temples before her birthday — and the victim’s soft corner for the accused had made her trust him completely and not suspect that anything was amiss,” said a police official part of the investigation.