Despite her lover brutally beaten to death in Maharashtra's Milind Nagar area on Thursday, a woman married him anyway, symbolically applying kumkum (vermillion) on the dead man's forehead, and deciding to live in his house at Nanded.
This follows the brutal murder of Saksham Tate (25) by the relatives of his lover, Aanchal Mamidwar, who had earlier opposed the relationship and had forbidden the two star-crossed lovers from meeting.
However, on Thursday, when Aanchal's relatives found out that Tate was still meeting her, six of them confronted him at Milind Nagar.
The arguments between them quickly escalated into a fight, and Tate was allegedly shot multiple times—one bullet entered his ribs—and was beaten with a floor tile till he dropped to the floor dead, a Pudhari report said.
Ahead of his cremation on Friday, Aanchal took a bold, unexpected decision, and decided to marry Saksham anyway—with tears in her eyes, she symbolically applied kumkum to her head, declaring that she was married to Saksham, and that he had won. She also moved into his house in Nanded as his wife.
Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police Avinash Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police Prashant Shinde and other officers launched a preliminary investigation into Tate's murder on Thursday.
By Friday, all six accused were taken into custody, and an FIR was filed at the Itwara police station. The main accused is Aanchal's father, Gajanan Balaji Mamidwar, while the other accused involve her mother, brother, and others.
The six accused have also been produced before the court, and have been granted eight days in police custody.
The inter-caste love story of Saksham Tate and Aanchal Mamidwar has understandably caused a ruckus over Dalit-related honour killings in Nanded, as Tate's disabled father and his mother—who had reportedly accepted Aanchal as their son's bride—have also filed a complaint against the accused for not only the alleged murder, but also because they claimed the accused had threatened them before the 25-year-old's death.
