Five held for murdering Dalit youth in Chennai
In a case of murder for caste pride, a 22-year-old Dalit youth was hacked to death allegedly by a five-member gang, which included the brother-in-law of the deceased, near a bar in Pallikaranai of Chennai on Saturday night. All the accused were arrested the next day.
The deceased, G Pravin alias Ashiq of Pallikaranai, was a bike mechanic who started working with his father Gopi soon after his schooling.
Pallikaranai police said Pravin and D Sharmila (20) of Jalladianpet, now a fourth-year student at a private college, were in a relationship from their school days.
While Pravin was from the Adi Dravidar community of the Scheduled Castes, Sharmila belongs to the Yadava community which is an Other Backward Caste.
The couple married despite her parents’ opposition in October last.
Sharmila told reporters that her family had been threatening the couple since their marriage.
She said her parents had filed a case against Pravin alleging he had abducted her and when the couple went to the police station to clarify she had consented to the marriage, her brother threatened to kill them.
However, a senior police official added the deceased was also an accused in a 2022 murder of a ganja peddler and the angle that this murder was committed in retaliation could not be dismissed as three of the accused were associates of the slain peddler.