CHENNAI: A 20-year-old youth and his mother have been booked under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act after an 18-year-old engineering student hailing from the Adi Dravidar community, with whom the youth was in a relationship, died by suicide on Tuesday.
The youth, Sanjay Kannan from Kannanthangal, and his mother, Anbuselvi, have been absconding.
The relatives of the girl staged a road blockade at Yedaiyarpakkam junction near Sriperumbudur on Thursday, demanding the arrest of the youth, his parents, and the two panchayat leaders belonging to the DMK, who were mediating between the families.
According to sources, the deceased, S Anushiya, a second-year Electrical and Electronice Engineering student at a private college, had been in a relationship for two years with Sanjay, who belongs to Chettiar community.
The Kannanthangal panchayat president Viswanathan and Kottur panchayat president Murugaiyyan allegedly held a kangaroo court and asked the couple to temporarily put their relationship on hold. In the first week of September, Anushiya’s family allowed Sanjay to stay with them briefly.
The girl’s relatives said Viswanathan and Murugaiyyan took Sanjay away on September 5, promising Anushiya’s family that they would reunite the couple. Fearing that they would be separated, Anushiya attempted suicide on September 7 but was rescued by her relatives. The couple was allegedly talking to each other after the incident, the girl was found dead at her house on Tuesday.
(Assistance for those having suicidal thoughts is available on TN’s health helpline 104)