MADURAI: Pandalgudi police in Virudhunagar district arrested a man for murdering the father of his daughter’s lover who is from a different caste. The girl’s family belongs to asari community while the boy is a dalit. The victim, Palani, 50, of Kurundamadam village in Aruppukottai taluk, was murdered during an argument between the families.
According to the first information report filed by the police, Palani’s son P Kaleeswaran, 24, a driver, was in love with K Madhubala of the same village for seven years. The girl’s family was against it as the boy is a dalit. A few days ago, they sent Madhubala to her grandmother’s place in Thiruthangal. On Wednesday evening, she returned to Kurundamadam and went to Kaleeswaran’s house.
“She refused to go back to her place despite Palani and his wife Jothi requesting her to leave as it could become a caste issue. But the girl refused to go to her house,” A Kathir of Evidence, an NGO that conducted a fact-finding study on the turn of events leading to the murder, said. Jothi informed Madhubala’s mother Pandeeswari that her daughter was in their house.
Soon, Pandeeswari and husband Karuppasamy went to Palani’s house and asked her to come with them, but she refused. A heated argument broke out between Karuppasamy and Palani when the former abused him naming his caste. Karuppasamy then attacked Palani on his head with a machete, much to the shock of both the families. Kaleeswaran and Jothi pushed Karuppasamy away and the latter suffered minor injuries.
Palani was rushed to Aruppukottai GH in a goods carrier and referred to Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai but he died without responding to treatment on Thursday. The police altered the attempt to murder case it filed initially to murder and arrested Karuppasamy. He was also booked under other sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
