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Lakshmi Subramanian
Lakshmi Subramanian

Honour Killing

Six get death for 2016 honour killing of dalit youth in TN

shankar-kausalya-file (File) Shankar and Kausalya

The principal district and sessions court in Tamil Nadu's Tirupur district on Tuesday pronounced a landmark judgement handing the death sentence to six persons and life imprisonment to one person in an infamous case of the honour killing of a dalit youth in 2016.

The sessions court handed capital punishment to six of the 11 accused, including the father-in-law of the victim, Udumalpet Shankar. The victim's mother-in-law, Annalakshmi, has been acquitted. Of the 11 accused, six have been sentenced to death, one person awarded life sentence, one given five-year sentence and three acquitted.

Pronouncing the verdict, principal district judge Alamelu Natarajan read out the massive judgement giving death sentence to six persons in one stroke.

It was in March 2016, a few days before the state Assembly elections that 22-year-old Shankar, who married a caste Hindu Girl, Kausalya, was brutally attacked by three persons in full public view near the Udumalpet bus stand. Kausalya suffered severe injuries on her head when the three men attacked the newly-wed couple. They were attacked at the behest of Kausalya’s father, Chinnasamy, who opposed their inter-caste marriage.

Shankar died on the way to hospital, while Kausalya was treated for months at the Coimbatore government hospital. It was a broad daylight murder, as footage caught by a CCTV camera at the marketplace near the bus stand caught the chilling attack. The video went viral, causing public outrage against honour killing in the state. Women's organisations protested the incident.

“This has given me immense belief in the judiciary. For the blood shed by Shankar, the judiciary has given the maximum judgement, only to ensure that the accused do not escape punishment. I will fight again in the court to ensure that the remaining three, including my mother Annalakshmi, are convicted. If the seven people convicted to death and life sentence go to the court for an appeal, I will fight there against them. I will not give up. Even if I am against death penalty, this judgement will put an end to honour killing,” Kausalya told mediapersons after the judgement

The police, after detailed investigations, had filed a 1,500-page charge-sheet against 11 persons including Chinnasamy, Annalakshmi and Kausalya's maternal uncle Pandithurai. They were also detained under the Goondas Act. The police arrested 11 persons in the connection with the case, including the parents of Kausalya, and registered cases under seven different sections of the Indian Penal Code and under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

“The judgement is a victory for Kausalya and her long wait for justice. This will sure put an end to honour killing,” says Balabarathi, former CPI(M) MLA from Dindigul, who was also part of the women's groups that protested for justice for Kausalya.

Tamil Nadu has witnessed 81 honour killings in the last three years. The cases of Yuvaraj in Thiruchengode and Ilavarasan in Dharmapuri shook the state, highlighting the caste Hindu politics.

In fact, Tamil Nadu of late has been witnessing an ascendancy in OBC politics in South and West Tamil Nadu, such that many small caste-based outfits take caste even to the schools. For instance, sources in Thiruchengode near Erode, say that Yuvaraj, one of the leaders of the Dheeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai, who was arrested and later let out on bail after a year following the murder of Gokulraj, a Dalit youth, used to visit schools to tell the students about the Kongu Vellala Gounders and their culture.

Gounders are the dominant caste in the areas of Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Salem, Thiruchengode and Namakkal; they are classified as Backward Castes within the 69 per cent reservation quota in Tamil Nadu.

The caste instigation in this western belt is such that Tamil writer Perumal Murugan was hounded and made to quit writing by these caste outfits for his novel Maadhorubaagan(one part woman). Later in 2016, the Madras High Court had to intervene to protect him. The caste outfits and Hindutva groups in Namakkal and Thiruchengode actually drove him out, saying he had demeaned Lord Arthanareeswarar (half man and half woman) through his novel.

Shankar’s murder reiterated the fact how caste is thicker than blood for the OBCs in Tamil Nadu. OBCs—the Gounders in the West, the Vanniyars in the North, the Thevars and the Nadars in South Tamil Nadu—for all the talk of respect and compassion, engage in conflicts with the dalits in their region.

“These OBCs call themselves as the Aanda Parambarai, meaning the ruling class. But whom did they rule? It is only the dalits or the oppressed community,” says Kathir, who runs Evidence, an NGO that fights against honour killings. In fact, says Kathir, the killing of Shankar was only to warn dalits in the region not to fall in love with caste Hindu girls or elope with them.

But now the judgement in Shankar’s case has come as a big blow to the caste outfits in the state.

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