honor killing | SabrangIndia News Related to Human Rights Thu, 02 Jul 2020 12:21:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 https://sabrangindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Favicon_0.png honor killing | SabrangIndia 32 32 Madras HC’s acquittal of accused in Udumalpet’s honour killing of a Dalit denies public justice https://sabrangindia.in/madras-hcs-acquittal-accused-udumalpets-honour-killing-dalit-denies-public-justice/ Thu, 02 Jul 2020 12:21:43 +0000 http://localhost/sabrangv4/2020/07/02/madras-hcs-acquittal-accused-udumalpets-honour-killing-dalit-denies-public-justice/ The court, reversed the lower court’s order convicting the father in law of the deceased, while failing to explore caste violence and prejudice that was the motive behind the crime.

The post Madras HC’s acquittal of accused in Udumalpet’s honour killing of a Dalit denies public justice appeared first on SabrangIndia.

]]>
Madras

Kowsalya Shankar who is now a social activist apart from being a government employee, is shocked by the Madras High Court judgment acquitting her father Chinnasamy for murdering her former husband. The Sessions court had convicted him and other accused and had sentenced them to death.

She says she will appeal to the Supreme Court, “Won’t rest till my parents are punished for my husband’s murder,” she said. “They are the brain behind the conspiracy as only they had the motive to settle scores against Shankar for marrying me,” she added. She also said that the prosecution did not push the case hard enough and did not argue effectively which was one of the reasons why her father got acquitted.

Background

Shankar and Kowsalya both studying engineering in the same college fell in love and wished to marry each other. When Kowsalya’s parents came to be aware of this relationship they opposed the same and restricted Kowsalya from going to college. Shankar and Kowsalaya mutually decided to elope and got married on July 12, 2015. Apprehending trouble they even submitted a petition for protection at a local police station after Kowsalya’s parents started making enquiry about her whereabouts. After the passage of some time, Kowsalya had asked the police not to take any further action against her parents.

On one occasion, Kowsalya was forcibly taken away by her parents, a period during which they exerted a lot of pressure to try and get Kowsalya to forget Shankar. Kowsalya’s relatives even told her that it is not possible to live with Shankar (now deceased), who belongs to Scheduled Caste community, that the marriage is not valid and tried to prevail upon her to live with them. She was thereafter taken to various places and some black-magic also performed to erase her memory of Shankar. Another relative who also participated in the crime and is an accused in the case had said that Kowsalya should not be left alive as she would be a bad example to the wider family as such conduct (inter-caste marriage) could be followed by his children as well.

On March 13, 2016 when Shankar and Kowsalya were waiting at a bus stop in Udumalpet some assailants, unknown to them, came on bikes in broad daylight and started inflicting injuries on them with a knife. Believing both to be dead, the assailants left the spot. Shankar succumbed to his injuries while Kowsalya survived after undergoing two weeks of treatment.

The Sessions Court had in its pathbreaking judgement of December 12, 2017 convicted five accused, and Kowsalya’s father Chinnasamy (who was charged as the conspirator in the case by the police) and were given the death sentence. The High Court, two and a half years later, on June 22, 2020 overturned this verdict. The Court also spoke scathingly of the indignities of the caste system.

In its 328 page judgement, the high court bench comprising Justices M Sathyanarayanan and M Nirmal Kumar dealt with confirmation of death sentence awarded to the accused by the Sessions Judge as well as the appeals of those convicted against the conviction as well the as the state’s appeal against the acquittal of some accused which included Kowsalya’s mother (referred to as accused number 2 –A2– in the judgment). It ultimately acquitted Chinnasamy (referred to as A1 in the judgment) who was charged of being the main conspirator of the crime, of all charges and modified the punishment of other convicts from death sentence to life imprisonment.

The Sessions court’s verdict

The prime accused in this case was Kowsalya’s father Chinnasamy (who was charged as the conspirator in the case by the police) and confirmed by the Sessions court.

The Sessions court judge, Alamelu Natarajan, after having pronounced the few accused including Chinnasamy as convicts, questioned, “If the punishment for marrying an upper caste girl by a lower caste boy, would be only a death sentence by murder, then what should be the punishment for such persons? is the question raised in the mind of the court.”

The Sessions court, in its judgement dated December 12, 2017, had quoted the Supreme court in Lata Singh Vs State of UP [2006 (7) SCJ] whereby the court held,

“The caste system is a curse on the nation and the sooner it is destroyed, the better. In fact, it is dividing the nation at a time when we have to be united to face the challenges before the nation unitedly. Hence, inter caste marriages are in fact in the national interest as they will result in destroying the caste system. However, disturbing news are coming from several parts of the country that young men and women who undergo inter caste marriage, are threatened with violence, or violence is actually committed on them. In our opinion, such acts of violence or threats or harassment are wholly illegal and those who commit them must be severely punished.”

The Sessions judge while commenting on increasing incidents of honour killings stated, “The anxiety with which the courts in our country voiced their approach towards inter-caste marriages, and expressing their strong condemnation of so called “Honour Killings” is evident from the various Judicial pronouncements as stated above. Still, sane mind has not set on the parents and many others, who still hail the caste system, and disapprove inter-caste marriages, sometimes in a violent manner.

While considering awarding capital punishment to the accused, the judge stated, “This crime committed is antisocial or socially abhorrent nature of crime. Whether this sort of crime would come under the rarest of rare cases or not has to be analysed…. The manner in which the crime is committed must be such that it may result in an intense and extreme indignation of the community and shock the collective conscience of the society where an accused does an act in a deliberate planned crime and executes the same meticulously, then such crimes are termed as Ghastly crime, wherein, death sentence was considered as the most appropriate punishment.”

The court also analysed the motive and state of mind of Chinnasamy in committing the crime, “A1 has masterminded and plotted a criminal conspiracy to do away, both his daughter PW1 and her husband Shankar, for the sole reason that his daughter had married a person belonging to Schedule Caste. A1’s hatred towards scheduled caste community, is to an extent wherein, he failed to honour the value of human life. A1 not considering Shankar as a fellow human being, his hatred towards caste was intolerable, than as a prudent human being, A1 had an option to cease his relationship totally with his daughter PW1, for marrying Shankar against A1’s wishes.”

Justifying its decision to award death sentence to the accused, the court stated, “instead of ceasing relationship with his daughter PW1 and Shankar, A1 has decided to cease the life of Shankar and PW1, his daughter as well. Accordingly, this court feels that since this case being one of the rarest of the rare case, A1, being the parent and for a wrong emotional decision, should really suffer capital punishment of death.”

The Sessions court judgment can be read here.

The High Court’s findings

The Madras High Court, in its Judgement dated June 22, 2020, while considering the case made out by the prosecution against A1, the bench held thus,

The testimonies of the said witnesses as to the seeing of A1 in the company of some of the assailants is highly doubtful. It is also to be noted at this juncture that except A1, they do not have any acquaintance with the other accused and no Test Identification Parade was conducted and the identification for the first time was made in the Court and as such, this Court is not inclined to believe the said testimonies as regards the charge of conspiracy.

The bench held that the prosecution was unable to prove the drawal of money by A1 from the joint account of himself and his wife and payment of part of the sum to the hunchmen who killed Shankar, in continuance of the conspiracy.

The bench further held that the prosecution has failed to prove that it was A1 alone had withdrawn the money from the joint account of himself and his wife under Ex.P41 marked through PW37, especially in the light of the fact that the said sums were withdrawn from the Automatic Teller Machines [ATMs]. It also came out from the evidence that A1 is also a Tourist Car Operator.

The court’s order

The court, while acquitting A1 stated, “prosecution is unable to prove the charge of conspiracy beyond any reasonable doubt and he is to be acquitted for the commission of the offence of conspiracy under Section 120[B] of IPC as well as Sections 302, 307 read with 109 of IPC and Section 3[2][Va] of SC/ST [POA] Amendment Act, 2015.”

The most surprising part of the judgment is that while Chinnasamy has been absolved of charges under the SC/ST Act, the court has not even weighed the charges against him throughout the judgement. The main contention of the prosecution all along has been that A1 conspired to kill both his daughter and his son in law by hiring hunchmen for the same as, evidently, the family was unhappy that the daughter married a Dalit. The possibility of this motive has barely been explored by the court and only observed that since A1 did not tell a witness that he was vindictive or angry about the inter-caste marriage of his daughter, the court, on basis of other evidences, concluded that the prosecution “miserably failed to produce any iota of material/evidence as to the enragement on the part of A1 to do away with the lives of his daughter/PW1 and the deceased on account of the said inter-caste marriage.”

Where the High Court falters

The judgment is not only silent on the many circumstances that form the foreground of the case but also on the caste angle of it. The judgement of a case dealing with the murder of a Dalit man remains silent on tissues like caste prejudice, crimes against Dalits and does not even explore the legislation (the SC/ST Prohibition of Atrocities Act, 1989).

The court seems to have completely missed the point that the whole dispute began with a core caste issue, that of prejudice. It is very common in India for parents to oppose marriage of their child to another from a lower caste and some cases end up in honour killings. The law, even if it does not deal with specific crime of honour killing under the penal law, there exists the SC/ST Act which includes punishment for various crimes committed against a person by the virtue of his caste. Criminal conspiracy is one of the offences enumerated in the schedule of the SC/ST Act for which one can be punished under section 3(2)(va) in tandem with the punishment accorded for that crime in the Indian Penal Code.

The Court did not take into account the very reasons that led to the commission of the crime. The hunchmen who were hired for the job still remain convicts but without the conviction of the conspirator, this becomes a crime without a motive. In criminal law, mens rea or in simpler terms, criminal intent is important to establish the guilt of the accused. In this case, only the commission of the murder is being punished and not the reason behind the criminal act, which is caste prejudice. The caste prejudice in this case is confirmed by the several testimonies of witnesses and of the primary witness, Kowsalya, who was herself attacked and luckily survived.

The high court’s judgment fails to address this caste prejudice and only relies on selective evidence. For instance, the prosecution’s contention that the hunchmen were paid by A1 to kill Shankar and Kowsalya was dismissed merely because the CCTV footage of the ATM from where the money was drawn was not presented as evidence. The focal point of the case, which was objection to the marriage on caste lines as well as various attempts to keep Kowsalya away from Shankar and using various methods to make her forget Shankar were not taken into account at all.

Prosecutions in India often fail or falter because of a complicit state apparatus. The Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC), sections 311 with 165 of the Evidence Act give powers to the presiding judge to summon witnesses, and pro-actively intervene during trial. Section 173(8) empowers the court to ensure that the agencies investigating the case leave no stones unturned to tie up the loose knots in criminal cases. Here, while the prosecution agency clearly failed to convincingly make its case but the court itself, did little to nudge the prosecution agency into covering the lapses in the probe as the CRPC empowers it to do. In Kowsalya’s case, both the state prosecution and the High Court have failed the course of public justice: prosecuting, probing the motive behind the crime of a caste-driven killing and thereby denying justice to the survivor.

When the judgements of constitutional courts falter and turn away from speaking on such ghastly crimes, not only is a bad precedent set but the very purpose of such emancipatory legislation, is defeated.

Precedents

The judgment does mention cases like Bhagwan Dass v. State (NCT of Delhi) [(2011) 6 SCC 396], in which the Supreme Court dealt with the case of an honour killing. The conclusions were clear: that honour killings are nothing but barbaric and brutal murders by bigoted person with feudal minds; they fall under the category of the rarest or rare cases, deserving death punishment. However this precedent has not been used by the court in reaching its final decision.

Kowsalya, Shankar’s wife is both the primary witness of the crime, and the wife of the deceased, Shankar. She has led a courageous and brave battle. Kowsalya is set to appeal before the apex court, aided by lawyers, in an attempt to bring justice for her dead husband.

The High Court judgement can be read here.

 

Related:

Just kill me now. Shoot. I am ready to die: Soni Sori

Do Dalit lives matter in India?: Reflecting on condition of Dalits and apathy

Outlawed caste-based militia Ranvir Sena issues death threats over social media in Bihar!

SC/ST Commission in UP headless for over 7 months

 

 

The post Madras HC’s acquittal of accused in Udumalpet’s honour killing of a Dalit denies public justice appeared first on SabrangIndia.

]]>
Republic of Caste supremacists https://sabrangindia.in/republic-caste-supremacists/ Thu, 20 Sep 2018 06:04:30 +0000 http://localhost/sabrangv4/2018/09/20/republic-caste-supremacists/ ‘Democracy day’ was being celebrated yesterday on social media where political leaders ‘greeted’ their ‘bhakts’ and hailing India as one of the ‘biggest’ democracies of the world.  Things are moving so fast these days that it has become too difficult to focus. The power of information sharing has reduced the power of ‘thinking’. Visual world […]

The post Republic of Caste supremacists appeared first on SabrangIndia.

]]>
‘Democracy day’ was being celebrated yesterday on social media where political leaders ‘greeted’ their ‘bhakts’ and hailing India as one of the ‘biggest’ democracies of the world.  Things are moving so fast these days that it has become too difficult to focus. The power of information sharing has reduced the power of ‘thinking’. Visual world is so attractive that we are unable to think beyond our own ‘publicities’. The culture of ‘selfie’ has actually made us extraordinarily self-promotional looking for ‘accidents’ to share information, share our concerns and forget the incidents after few days.
 

 
The results of JNU Student Union Elections are out and the left has won handsomely but then this year showed the desperation of the right wing ABVP to win at all cost. Prior to that, the Delhi University Student Union Elections saw the worst fear that India is having with the electronic voting machine. With 42% votes the ABVP won elections but not without the charges of rampant favoritism and malfunctioning of EVMs who incidentally were brought up in the Delhi market and not supplied by the Election Commission. Whether we win or lose, the fact is that the right wing has got huge support and acceptability in India and that is the worry. If our Universities and colleges are still supporting the right wing politics it clearly reflect the crisis that we are facing. It is not surprising though shocking that an undemocratic society is using ‘democracy’ to strengthen the social superstructure which encouraged and promoted inequality. Baba SahebAmbedkar had warned against this social inequality which could be detrimental to democracy if not resolved on time.

Today, DrAmbedkar’s warning is coming true. India is at the cross roads. It may be declared as one of the most dangerous countries to visit but the fact is for a huge number of Dalits and Adivasis in this country, the society has been a nightmare. Every day, we witness such cruelty for which words are not enough but the last four years have only strengthen those forces who have perpetuated the caste crime. Prior to that, there was a bit of acceptance and guilty conscience feeling but now it is more as a right and show of absolute disregard towards the democratic constitutional norms. I have always maintained that this country has given youth a right to vote and elect our prime minister or our government which we all feel extremely proud of, yet the youth in this country decide who to love, what to eat and what to wear and who to marry ? In the last four years, these issues have been aggravated. The entire campaign against self-arranged marriages in this country in the name of ‘Love Jehad’ was basically nothing but to stop parents supporting any such marriage. Parents do not support intercastes, inter-faith marriages except for a very tiny minority who stand with the choice of their children but a majority do not accept it.  Most of them accept after several years when they become ‘grand-parents’. Here too, the case has not merely a caste bias but patriarchical element too. If the girl is a caste Hindu while the boy a Dalit, the acceptance is difficult. You have to change. The humiliation is complete. I know a friend from Tamilnadu, now settled in Delhi, faced this dilemma. His sister fell in love with a Brahmin boy. The marriage was to be solemnized in Chennai and the entire family went there. The Brahmin family did not allow the bride’s maternal uncles to ‘perform’ the ‘kanyadanam’, instead they asked their own people to do it. The bride’s family was kept completely isolated during the marriage ceremony. They all return with deep resentment though the girl got what she wanted. She even compelled her mother to give her dowry. Many times, our youngsters want to get everything even at the cost of humiliating their parents. These marriages do not have a clear understanding of social cultural situation and hence after the temptation is over, they face the brutal realities of our life.

There are two important cases where the victims are the Dalits. One officer of the Indian Police Service in Uttar Pradesh committed suicide just a few days back. Though not much was heard about him but Surendra Das, Superintended Police, Kanpur took poison and died. According to news reports his marital life was not running well. His wife was a doctor and belonged to the so-called upper caste community. It was also reported that he searched on Google the pattern to commit suicide. The marital discord resulted in his suicide reflect the uneven nature of relationship between a person belonging to the Dalit community and that from the other castes.

Every year many young couples are butchered to death by the false pride of the castes. These shameful murders in the name of protection of ‘caste identity’ or its supremacy is the biggest threat that India has and unless we resolve to become a social democracy, our political democracy would be in a peril and just for the name sake. India is a hugely diverse country with multiple languages, religion and regions yet there are certain common traits right from the north to south, from east to west, between the Hindus and the Muslims, the Christians or Sikhs and that is the culture of caste supremacy and a hatred against the Dalits. All religions and regions of India have castes and practice the pernicious caste system and untouchability. The hatred towards those who challenge the basic supremacy of the caste system is enormous and they face the death penalty.

 Murder to protect caste pride
Pranay and Amrutha were in love since 2011 when both of them were students.Pranay belonged to Christian community though his Mala identity remained with him. The girl belonged to Vaishya or Bania community and her father was a realtor. They got married on January 31stand  were planning to settle abroad. Pranay had done is B.Tech and his brother was doing his MBBS in Ukraine. The 24 year old Pranay and his wife decided to stay put because of the pregnancy of Amrutha.  On 14th September when Pranay and Amrutha were going to the doctor for the her medical check-up, a person attacked him from the back and killed him on the spot.Amrutha had always feared about the same as she was threatened by her father MaruthiRao and her uncle yet despite their opposition and protest she decided to be with Pranay showed that love will always conquer hatred.

MaruthiRao is a Bania or Vaishya caste person. Remember, a few months back how they opposed author KanchaIllaih for his remark about the community. For several days, they were abusing him and were really seeking his blood. Political leaders used the opportunity to fan the protest. Children were asked to urinate on Illiah’s photograph and women shoeing his photograph. Today, MaruthiRao killed his daughter to protect his caste pride. He has no shame in doing so. We don’t know what is left for him or whether he is too much confident of getting thing done in the courts. It also reflects the dirty Indian minds who are caste supremacists and refuse to change. Our education, our economic growths havenot change our attitude towards life. We remain deeply a psychic society unready to accept the growing changes in the society. Have we heard any Hindu organisations, Babas, SanghParivar, Hindu Mahasabha, Spritual leaders speaking against this heinous crime ? Will the Banias or Vaishyas as they are called in Telangana, speak up against this murder and isolate like Rao?
When KanchaIllaih was attacked, most of the political leaders did not come in support of him. They felt he crossed the limit. Many felt that they have business and work with all the communities so cannot annoy them. Even today, I can bet, most of the Hindus will have the same attitude. They will not speak thing openly but they would definitely justify the act of MaruthiRao. Let us see how this case moves ahead.

MaruthiRao as reported in the newspaper justified his act and admitted doing so. The New Indian Express reported on the issue“During interrogation, MaruthiRao reportedly told police that Pranay and his daughter were in a relation from class IX. When the couple were in intermediate, they had reportedly run away. “I managed to bring her back. I did not want to trouble Pranay, so I did not file a case against him,” he is reported to have said.  According to police sources, MaruthiRao also said, “I love my daughter very much, but I am not interested in her love marriage with Pranay.’

I tried to convince her several times, but she did not listen to me. I am more concerned about my status in the society than my daughter. I am not worried about killing Pranay. I was prepared to go to jail and planned the murder.” Both the duo and the contract killers were nabbed in the city. Police also found that MaruthiRao had forced DrJyoti, who was treating Amruthavarshini, to abort her child. He reportedly offered a huge sum for the exchange of favor.”
http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/2018/sep/16/nalgonda-honour-killing-father-in-law-three-others-detained-over-dalit-youths-murder-1872550.html
 
Amrutha knew her father’s attempt to stop her friendship with Pranay. After marriage, she was aware of the threat to the love of her life but somehow they were unable to do so. You can’t trust the administration and police to protect you once you challenge the social norms. Pranay lost his life to absurd and rigid social norms of India prescribed the Manu and now justified by numerous babas and their political chelas just for the sake of their vote bank. A politics of hatred has emerged out of these love affairs. The term Love Jehad was created to hound the Muslims but the fact is that the Hindutva’s followers do not want people to mingle beyond their castes. The varna dharma has caste supremacy based on the purity of their sex. They don’t want children outside the wedlock of their own castes and maintain the purity of their ‘blood’. The entire issue of purity is nothing but concept of racial supremacy which has not got exposed.

The slogan Hindus must unite is very easy and the easiest factor for them is to keep on their anti-Muslim ranting. How will the Hindu dharma get united when it does not allow people to marry beyond their castes? Will prime ministerNarendraModi, Amit Shah, RSS or art of living Baba speak on these issues as why our youngsters are being butchered in brutal manners. All those who are worried of Hindu dharma must speak up against such butchery. You have killed Pranay but more than that you have killed your daughter and her happiness. The psychological scars that she must have been facing today of this barbaric act would take a lot of time and courage to fill.

Amrutha is courageous which is why she chose her love over the money and everything that her father had offered. Love transcends everything.

According to The Newsminute report
“When they knew that I was talking to him, my uncle manhandled me,” she said. Speaking to the channel, Amrutha said that she had known Pranay since 2011 and that the two of them were planning to go abroad and settle there soon. However, they postponed their plans when they came to know about the pregnancy. She further added that she will not abort the fetus and said, “I will keep the baby with me as his gift.”
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/only-my-father-capable-doing-amrutha-wife-murdered-telangana-dalit-man-88381
 
Will Amrutha emulate Kausalya
The stories such as Amrutha and Pranay are plenty in this country. The loveless country never wants young couples to enjoy their life and fun. Already, our lives are filled with troubles and hatred and whatever time and opportunity that we get to make love is consumed in worries of future and social acceptability. Youngsters have been killed for just being in love as their parents felt their caste supremacy was important and must remain pure and intact. Marriage beyond caste and religion actually threaten their ‘purity’ and hence they have no shame in even killing their own children.

In March 2014, we saw one of the most brutal murder of Shankar who happened to be a Dalit, for falling in love with Kausalya who belonged to a powerful OBCs who resented her affair with Shankar even when Shankar’s parents had accepted her. Kaushalya’s parents and other relatives hatched a conspiracy and murdered Shankar in the broad daylight in a busy street of Coimbatore city. Again the murder was very brutal but Kaushalya stood up with Shankar’s family and fighting to get her parents punished. She has shown exemplary courage in fighting against this social evil and today she has become a role model in Tamilnadu, a voice of reason fighting against caste discrimination.

Amrutha has the biggest challenge. She has to take care of herself besides standing with the parents of Pranay. We wish her strength and hope that she will see that the murderers are prosecuted and brought to justice. I salute her for her stand and I hope she remains on that solidly like Kauslya. They are far superior to those women who have seen such cases and yet surrendered to their families and kept their mouth shut. There are many such stories where compromises are done.

I wont say don’t love as being in love is the most dangerous thing today but I would definitely advice the young couples to ensure that they are economically independent and are not depended on their families. Please never trust your families. The problem is once they marry they feel that they are safe and the parents would accept them. It is not that simple. In most of the cases, it seems, the girls are in touch with their parents particularly mothers or others. In our caste based society, women don’t have any say and hence mothers mostly become part of the project that father hatch. It is sad but reality of our time. Things have not changed in India that way where parents could respect your choices beyond caste identities.

Let us hope that the criminals like Maruthi Rao get severest punishment but we need to do much more than this and not merely been reacting to them. It is time when we focus on the social and cultural crisis that India suffer from and try to resolve it. Politicians and governments won’t do it for sure. Power will never touch these issues. Only an awakened society can do it. As love bloom in the air, hatred will disappear and caste supremacy will have to go and that is the reason why we are afraid off. India’s current crisis revolves around its anti-democratic society which does not allow its children to enjoy life for the fear of losing the caste purity. Only a complete annihilation of caste will ensure success of our democracy but will caste supremacists be ready for it ?

Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist. He blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com twitter @freetohumanity Email: vbrawat@gmail.com

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org/
 

The post Republic of Caste supremacists appeared first on SabrangIndia.

]]>
Honor’ killing in Catholic family shocks Kerala https://sabrangindia.in/honor-killing-catholic-family-shocks-kerala/ Wed, 30 May 2018 05:16:30 +0000 http://localhost/sabrangv4/2018/05/30/honor-killing-catholic-family-shocks-kerala/ India (Kerala): Dalit man found dead in a stream only five days after marrying a woman from an affluent Christian family in Kerala. Thousands of people protest in front of the office of the Kottayam district collector on May 29 seeking action against police officers whose inaction they say led to the murder of a […]

The post Honor’ killing in Catholic family shocks Kerala appeared first on SabrangIndia.

]]>

India (Kerala): Dalit man found dead in a stream only five days after marrying a woman from an affluent Christian family in Kerala.


Thousands of people protest in front of the office of the Kottayam district collector on May 29 seeking action against police officers whose inaction they say led to the murder of a Dalit Catholic man. (ucanews.com photo)
 

The murder of a socially poor Dalit Catholic man who had married a woman belonging to an upper-caste Syrian Christian family has fueled protests across India’s southern state of Kerala.

Kevin P. Joseph, 26, a member of Vijayapuram Diocese, was murdered on May 28, five days after he married 20-year-old Neenu Chacko of an affluent Christian family in Kollam district against the wishes of her family. 

The man was dragged out of his house in Kottayam district with his cousin and taken away by a gang allegedly hired by the girl’s family, police told media. His body was later found in a stream in Thenmala in Kollam district. His cousin was released.

The victim’s father and wife told media that they had approached police soon after he was kidnapped but officers refused to entertain them, saying they were busy arranging security for a visit by Pinaryi Vijayan, the state’s chief minister. 

Neenu named her brother Shanu Chacko and 11 people as responsible for the crime. Most gang members belong to the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), a youth wing associated with Kerala’s ruling communist alliance.

“Had the police acted in time, a life could have been saved and criminals could have been arrested promptly,” Lathika Subhash, leader of the women’s wing of the opposition Congress party, told a protest gathering.

The crime comes amid allegations that Communist Party of India leaders use police to meet their ends. 

However, police have arrested some DYFI members in connection with the murder.

The government is to suspend local police officers including Kottayam district police chief V.M. Mohammad Rafik.

Congress and the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for a dawn-to-dusk shutdown in Kottayam district to protest police inaction after the crime was reported.

The murder, dubbed a so-called honor killing, has triggered a debate in Kerala about discrimination against Christians of lower-caste origin by upper-caste Christians who claim to be descendants of the priestly caste of Brahmins converted by St. Thomas the Apostle in 52 A.D. 

Widespread protests have been held by Dalit Christian groups in the state recently against the discrimination they face from upper-caste Christians, commonly known as Syrian Christians because of their ancient link with the Syrian Church and its liturgy.

A Syrian Christian bishop recently rattled the community by saying that discrimination against Dalit Christians was due to the “myth” that their forefathers were upper-caste Brahmins.

Dalits formed just 2.6 percent of the 6.14 million Christians in Kerala in 2011, according to a study by K.C. Zacharia of the Center for Development Studies in state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Catholics dominated the Christian population with 3.7 million. Syrian Christians, now split into seven churches, are the majority and a politically influential group in the state.  

Women’s activist and lawyer T.B. Mini told ucanews.com that honor killings should be seen as the result of a resurgence of dormant caste feelings in Kerala society. 

“Caste feelings have aggravated in Kerala after left-wing parties, which worked as a bulwark against untouchability and caste discrimination, started pursuing power politics,” Mini said. 

Recalling that communist parties were at the forefront of fighting caste discrimination and attracting lower castes to the party, she said that “if the current trend goes unchecked, peace will be threatened” in the state.

Source: UCAN
Courtesy: UCAN

The post Honor’ killing in Catholic family shocks Kerala appeared first on SabrangIndia.

]]>