Agencies
MUMBAI: Inter-caste marriages remain a no-go area even in India’s most progressive state Kerala which has recently been in the news for the so-called love jihad.
Now a case of honour killing of a Hindu girl has come to light.
Athira, a 21-year-old woman belonging to Ezhava caste (OBC), was killed by her father on Thursday because she had fallen in love with a Dalit man whom she was going to marry on Friday.
Reports say the vicim, who belonged to Poovathi Kandi in Malappuram district, was in a relationship with Brijesh who is in the army and comes from Koyilandy. She had even eloped with him once.
But the woman’s father P. Rajan, 42, who is a painter, didn’t approve of her relationship with the Dalit boy. Just a day before the wedding planned at the boy’s place, he stabbed his daughter.
Police has been quoted as saying, “Athira had already eloped once with the man. However, after her family promised to get her married to him, she returned home. The father too reluctantly gave his nod to the marriage as Athira had kept her word and come back home. All the wedding preparations were in full swing and this was when her inebriated father got into an argument with her and stabbed the girl.”
When her father attacked her, the woman fled to her neighbour’s house. But he chased her and stabbed her in the kitchen. She was taken to hospital where she was declared dead.
