MADURAI: The tale of an inter-caste love marriage yet again ended in tragedy. A 21-year-old caste Hindu girl was allegedly honour killed by her relatives for marrying a caste Hindu man from a different community. The incident came to light in Sedapatti police limits, Periyur sub division, Madurai district in the late hours of Friday. Police arrested the victim’s father, mother, brother and aunt.
A police source said that the deceased B Suganya hailed from Veeralampatti village near Periyur in Madurai district. Fourth child of five and the only daughter of Periyakarthikeyan and Chellammal, she completed her nursing course at a private college in Madurai district and was at training in a private hospital in Erode district.
During her training period, Suganya met K Boopathy (23) hailing from Gangapuram. He was a painter and visited the hospital for treatment. They fell in love and married, with the consent of Boopathy’s family, in Erode in January. They only revealed their marriage to her family after a month. In February, she visited her home in Madurai district to pacify her family, but returned to Erode the very next day.
After sometime, the father Periyakannan, accompanied by his sister Lakshmi and two others – Sundaram and Pandikannan – visited Suganya and won their confidence. Later, they asked the newly-married couple to visit their village to attend Jallikattu held at nearby Mangalrev village.
The couple, along with Boopathy’s grandmother Ponammal, came to Madurai on April 14. However, they were threatened and Boopathy and Ponammal was asked to leave. The two left the place and Boopathy submitted a petition to Erode SP on April 24 about the situation. He complained that there was no contact from his wife since the incident.
When police inquired with the girl’s family members, they learnt that the girl was murdered on April 15. Initial investigations revealed that the girl never made it to the village. Peraiyur inspector Guruvenkatraj registered a case in Sedapatti police station and arrested four of them – K Periyakarthikeyan (54), father of the girl, his wife Chellammal (46), and their son Chinaswamy (26) and Periyakarthikeyan’s sister M Lakshmi (56).