After Engineering Student Hacked To Death, 4 Relatives of Wife Arrested

Chennai:  Two days after a 22-year-old engineering student was hacked to death in a daylight attack in Tamil Nadu caught on CCTV camera, four relatives of his wife have been arrested.

V Sankar and his young wife Kausalya were out shopping on a crowded road on Sunday when they were attacked by three men armed with sickles and other sharp weapons.

In CCTV footage, the men are seen repeatedly attacking Sankar till he stops moving. Then they turn on Kausalya and hit her till she falls to the ground.

Sankar, a Dalit, and 19-year-old Kausalya had married eight months ago after meeting in college. Kausalya's family, which belongs to the powerful and dominant Thevar caste, had refused to accept the marriage and had allegedly threatened the couple several times.

Kausalya is being treated for head injuries.  Her father Chinnasamy surrendered yesterday but claimed he had no role in the killing and that he turned himself in because the police were looking for him.

Sankar was cremated last night at his hometown Udumalpet under tight security after protests and clashes.

A large number of people had surrounded the van carrying Sankar's body, refusing to allow the cremation unless the killers were arrested. The police had to use force and reassurances to convince the protesters to let go of the body.

Kausalya is being treated for head injuries.  Her father Chinnasamy surrendered yesterday but claimed he had no role in the killing and that he turned himself in because the police were looking for him.

Sankar was cremated last night at his hometown Udumalpet under tight security after protests and clashes.

A large number of people had surrounded the van carrying Sankar's body, refusing to allow the cremation unless the killers were arrested. The police had to use force and reassurances to convince the protesters to let go of the body.

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Caste and violence in Tamil Nadu: Honour killings haunt the state

The suspected honour killing of a Dalit man near Coimbatore on Sunday may have caused a nationwide uproar, but this is only the latest case of caste-based violence in a state with a brutal history of Dalit oppression.

A group of unidentified men armed with hatchets and sickles hacked 22-year-old Shankar to death in the town of Udumalaipettai Tiruppur, allegedly for marrying his wife Kausalya, an upper caste Hindu.

Kausalya told police she believed the attackers were hired by her family as she was threatened by them in the past for marrying against their wishes.

Political parties such as the DMK and the Congress have criticised the ruling AIADMK government for not doing enough but Shankar’s death is just the latest in a long line of atrocities against Dalits in Tamil Nadu; a fact that may seem at odds with the state’s image of being one of the more progressive in the country.

A history of violence

The political landscape of Tamil Nadu abounds with Dravidian parties that have inherited and being influenced by the social justice movement of Periyar, who spoke forcefully against caste-based violence and advocated ‘self-respect’ marriages.

But behind the Periyar lip-service, the state hides a sordid history of violent responses to inter-caste marriage, or demands from Dalits to have the same access to places of worship that the higher castes do.

Kausalya belongs to the Thevar caste, a community that shares with the Vanniyars and Gounders, a history of committing atrocities against Dalits.

Shankar’s brutal murder echoed that of Gokulraj, a Dalit man who was murdered in 2015 by members of the Gounder community simply for speaking to a Gounder woman at a temple.

It also brought to mind the violence of 2012, when over 200 Dalit houses were torched by an angry upper-caste mob after a Dalit boy, Ilavarasan, had eloped with a girl from their community, Divya.

Violent clashes between OBCs and Dalits have increased in northern Tamil Nadu because of its changing political climate; specifically, the formation of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (Working People’s Party) in the late 1980s by Dr S Ramadoss. The PMK was predicated on the Vanniyars’ sense of identity, and aggressively employed a political rhetoric that framed the demands of the community in terms of caste.

The PMK was born largely due to the absence of a strong anti-caste policy from the two main inheritors of Periyar’s legacy, the DMK and the AIADMK. This space was not just used by OBCs however; Dalits also formed parties to counter the rise of caste politics, with the most notable being the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (Liberation Panther Party).

When Ilavarasan’s body, was found on the railway tracks near Dharmapuri in 2013, foul play was immediately suspected.

And while PMK chief Ramadoss publically refuted claims that he or his party had anything to do with it, the fact that his followers publicly condemned inter-caste marriages and even advocated violence led many experts to believe that caste tensions and politics had intertwined in the state.

“The death of the Dalit youth Ilavarasan of Dharmapuri district, who married Divya, a Vanniyar girl, has emboldened castiest elements. Caste outfits masquerading as political parties are ready to go to any extent to break inter-caste marriages as they fear it will spell a death knell for casteism,” wrote P Sampath, president of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front.

When the main suspect in Gokulraj’s murder, Yuvaraj a leader of a local Gounder party, was arrested, he was surrounded by many of his cheering supporters, highlighting perhaps how politicised inter-caste violence had become.

Last year, the then chief minister O Pannerselvam dismissed claims of caste violence being on the rise in the state assembly, saying, “There was no incidence of honour killing in the state. Rarely do suicide or suspicious deaths involving inter caste couples occur.”

But, as Shankar, Ilavarasan and Gokulraj show, caste violence is alive and well in Tamil Nadu; and, given its political undertones, it is unlikely to die down anytime soon.

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Giant cake, Amma tattos mark J Jayalalithaa's birthday

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's 68th birthday will be celebrated by her party AIADMK in a grand way on Wednesday. A huge cake with AIADMK's party symbol is also at party headquaters in Chennai.

The Greater Chennai Corporation is planning to hold various events and welfare programmes in honour of the AIADMK leader including mobile medical camps, blood donation drives, planting tree saplings and cleaning water bodies.

The saplings will be planted in 6,868 temples in all 32 districts of the state, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department said.

Jayalalithaa supporters also got tattos of the AIADMK leader. The party cadre are offering special prayers across the state.

Over 200 Amma canteens will serve free food to all customers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also wished Jayalithaa on her birthday. "Birthday wishes to Jayalalithaa ji. May Almighty bless her with a long life, filled with good health."

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Dancing Jailer Suspended in Salem After Video Goes Viral

A deputy jailer in Salem, Tamil Nadu, is the new social media dancing sensation. A video of 58-year-old Shankaran dancing in uniform on peppy drum beats was captured on a mobile phone, which is now being widely circulated on several social media platforms.
In the video, the salt-and-pepper haired, pot-bellied deputy jailer is dancing in front of other police personnel inside a closed room and that’s when someone took the video and circulated it on Whatsapp messenger. According to The New Indian Express, he was in Chennai to take part in the Republic Day parade.
As soon as the video went viral, an inquiry was set up and as a result, the jailer was transferred to Coimbatore. He was reportedly suspended on February 9.








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