TN: Six, including father-in-law, sentenced to death for hacking of Dalit man

A 22-year-old man was hacked by hired killers sent by his wife’s family, who were upset with her for marrying a Dalit man. The woman’s father was among those sentenced to death

Six people were sentenced to death by a court In Tirupur on Tuesday for the suspected honour killing of 22-year-old Shankar, a Dalit man, in full public view in nearby Udumalpet in March last year.

Shankar, a Dalit man, who married Kausalya, a high-caste Hindu, was hacked to death by hired killers in Tirupur, Tamil Nadu in 2016.(File photo)

Those sentenced to death included the father of the woman, Kausalya, who had married Shankar against the wishes of her family.

Tirupur principal district and sessions judge Alamelu Natarajan also sentenced another accused to life term and another to five years imprisonment in the case. The judge acquitted three other accused, including Kausalya’s mother.

The case triggered outrage as a video showing three men attacking Shankar and Kausalya on March 13, 2016, was telecast by TV channels.

A gang of unidentified men, armed with hatchets and sickles, rode into Udumalaipettai town in Tirupur district, waylaid Shankar, 22, and hacked him to death in broad daylight. The youth died en route to hospital.

Kausalya, who was with him at the time of the incident, was critically injured and admitted to the ICU later. The attack was carried out at the behest of Kausalya’s father.

In a statement to the police, she blamed her family members for her husband’s death and told the police that she had complained about the threat from her family earlier.

The couple fell in love while studying at an engineering college in Palani and got married. However, the girl’s family tried to take her away even when she told the police that she had married the man of her own free will.

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