COIMBATORE: A 24-year-old man allegedly murdered his younger brother, while grievously assaulting the latter’s teenaged lover, in a suspected case of honour killing reported from a village near Mettupalayam in the district on Tuesday.
The girl was receiving treatment for the injuries sustained to head and right eye at the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital and was said to be out of danger. Two special police teams are on a manhunt for the suspect, K Vinod Kumar.
Sources said that the deceased Kanagaraj, a resident of Vellipalayam road at Mettupalayam, was in love with a 16-year-old Dalit girl for the past two years. Vinod was opposed to the affair, and this issue strained the relationship between the brothers.
When Kanagaraj approached his father Karuppasamy seeking his assent, the latter reportedly advised the former to stay put until the matter cooled down. It was in this backdrop that Kanagaraj rented out a house at Sri Rangarayan Odai on Vellipalayam Road in Mettupalayam and started living with the girl five days ago.
On learning about the development, Vinod allegedly stormed into the house, hacked Kanagaraj, whose body was found with a deep cut to the head, to death and assaulted the girl. A police official said that there was a possibility of the attack being an act of honour killing as the deceased belonged to the Valayar community (Most Backward Class) while the girl was from Arundhathiyar community (Scheduled Caste).
On information, the Mettupalayam police rushed to the scene of crime and sent the body to government Mettupalayam hospital for postmortem. While a case was registered against Vinod Kumar under sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC, armed reserve police force was deployed to the area to prevent any caste flare-up.