Tamil Nadu honour killing: Dalit techie killed; girlfriend's brother arrested, parents arrested

A 27-year-old IT professional who belonged to the Dalit community was hacked to death during the daytime in Tamil Nadu on Sunday, reported The Indian Express. Both the family and the police described the murder as an honour killing.

It was Kavin Selva Ganesh who was killed.  The accused murderer was the brother of a girl he had dated for a long time.  In relation to an attack on Kavin outside a private Siddha hospital in KTC Nagar, Tirunelveli, where the girl Subashini works as a consultant, accused S Surjith, 21, also turned himself in.

The alleged is the son of police sub-inspectors Saravanan and Krishnakumari, who are also been made co-accused in the case for attempting to provoke the crime and threatening Kavin in the past.

Kavin, a graduate in engineering and a resident of Arumugamangalam village near Thoothukudi district and working with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Chennai, was a close friend of Subashini since school days.

As per The Indian Express, the relationship between Kavin and Subashini was friendly but had been met with increasing hostility on the part of the woman's family, who belonged to the Most Backward Class (MBC). Members of Kavin's family, who are Scheduled Caste (SC), claim that they had been threatened repeatedly.

On Sunday, Kavin had gone to KTC Nagar to see Subashini about his ill grandfather, the report added. There, Surjith met Kavin and informed him that his parents wished to meet him. Believing that Surjith was genuine, Kavin got onto his two-wheeler and they proceeded towards Astalakshmi Nagar.

S Tamizhselvi, Kavin's mother, reported to Palayamkottai police that Surjith braked suddenly and abused her son by asking how he had the courage to love a girl from a different caste. Surjith, in his turn, as reported, pulled out a sickle hidden behind his back and attacked Kavin repeatedly. The Indian Express had eyewitnesses claiming that Kavin attempted to flee but was pursued and hacked to death 200 meters from the hospital.

Surjith has been taken into custody and a case registered against him and his parents under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 2015.

The report states that CCTV recordings of the crime scene have been retrieved and the victim's body was turned over for post-mortem to Tirunelveli Government Hospital.

Kavin's family members have not accepted his body and are demanding legal action against Surjith's parents, holding them as masterminds behind the murder. "They were resistant towards the relationship from the beginning and kept troubling my son time and again. Even now, they may be using their posts trying to influence the case," Tamizhselvi filed in her complaint.

There was a protest in areas of Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts where the people called for justice and suspension of police officers involved