THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 61-year-old man was beaten to death by a gang of four youths at Vadasserikonam near Kallambalam on the eve of his daughter's marriage.
The victim has been identified as Raju, who earned a living working as an auto driver. The marriage of Raju's daughter Sreelakshmi was slated on Wednesday. She was in a relationship with a youth Jishnu, who lived nearby. Jishnu's family had approached Raju with a marriage proposal, but he rejected it. Following this Sreelakshmi's marriage was fixed to another person.
The family had been busy with the preparation for the wedding ceremony and a reception was held at their house. On Tuesday night after the reception was over a gang comprising Jishnu, his brother Jijin and their friends Shyam and Manu barged into the house and attacked Raju using wooden logs and sharp-edged weapons.
The group first went up to Sreelakshmi and tried to talk to her. When she objected, they attacked her first. Seeing this Raju intervened and Jijin beat him up using a wooden log. A relative of Raju was also attacked by the gang.
The gang vandalized a portion of the house and left the place thinking that Raju had died. The relatives took him to hospital after the youths left. However, he could not be saved. The four have been taken into custody by the police.