New Delhi: A Dalit man was beaten and then stabbed to death in Hyderabad on May 4 for allegedly marrying a Muslim woman against her family’s wishes, The News Minute has reported.
The beating and murder took place in a busy road, after the couple – riding a two-wheeler – were given chase by the woman’s brother and another family member. Onlookers who tried to stop the attacks were threatened.
The victim, Billipuram Nagaraju, is a 26-year-old man of the Mala community, categorised as a Scheduled Caste.
Nagaraju’s wife, Syed Ashrin Sulthana, said the two had been in a relationship for a long time. Nagaraju had approached Sulthana’s family with his plan to marry her but was turned away. The couple married in January this year at an Arya Samaj ceremony, and began living in Saroornagar of Hyderabad.
They suspected that they were being tailed by Sulthana’s family and moved to Visakhapatnam for a while, returning to the city just five days ago.
The police have registered a case under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Bharatiya Janata Party workers in the region have taken up the case and demanded justice for the victim.
In February, 2022, a man in Tamil Nadu killed his wife and two daughters before killing himself, angered by the fact that his elder daughter had married a Dalit man.
In January 2021, a 30-year-old Dalit man was killed by his ‘upper’ caste wife’s family in Kurnool district’s Adoni Town.
In 2020, a 23-year-old ‘upper’ caste woman was killed and buried in her family farm by her brother after she married a Dalit man in Delhi.
In 2019, a 25-year-old Dalit man was hacked to death by his ‘upper’ caste wife’s father and seven other relatives, who had routinely threatened them before the murder in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad.
This article first appeared on thewire.in