Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Woman seeks action against brothers for killing husband

MADURAI: A woman has sought action against her brothers under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for murdering her husband, a Dalit.

S. Lakshmi (29) of Arithuvaramangalam in Tiruvarur district has approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking justice in the case of murder of her husband A. Sivaji.

Ms. Lakshmi had to overcome several obstacles when she announced her intention to marry the Dalit.

She was harassed by her kin, shifted forcibly to her sister’s house and locked up in a room for over a month to discourage any meeting with Sivaji.

She escaped from their clutches and eloped with him to Dindigul where they took the marriage vows at the Malaikottai Mariamman temple. The couple lived together hardly for a few months, when death knocked at their door.

The bride’s elder brothers, along with 15 others, barged into their house on September 7, attacked her husband, tied his hands, stuffed his mouth with a piece of cloth and abducted him in a car.

Immediately, she lodged a complaint with the local police. However, later in the day she learnt that her husband’s body had been found near a riverbed at Thogur in Thanjavur district.

The police converted the abduction case into murder and arrested her brothers.

Narrating the incidents in her affidavit, she insisted that the police also book the accused under the provisions of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Convinced about the arguments advanced by her counsel R. Alagumani, engaged by Evidence, a human rights organisation, Justice G. Rajasuria on Thursday directed the police to alter the provisions, if there was no legal impediment.

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