COIMBATORE: The family of the Dalit youth who was killed for marrying an upper caste girl has received an threatening letter on Friday. The 23-year-old Dalit engineering student, Shankar was murdered in Udumalpet bus stand last Sunday in front of hundreds of members of the public. His wife, Kausalya who belongs to upper caste Thevar community, was also attacked and is being treated at the government hospital in Coimbatore. As the police have nabbed six accused including Kausalya’s father, the father of the Dalit youth received a threatening letter on Friday. However, the police said the address on the post could be fake.
The letter, which gave the sender’s name as Allaudin from Mettupalayam, said, “You have lost your elder son because he dared to marry an upper caste girl. Make sure your second son chooses a girl from your community. Otherwise, he too will face the same fate.” The letter was immediately handed over to Kumaralingam police station. As there is no inspector in Kumaralingam police station, Madathukulam inspector been deputed as inspector in-charge. Anbarasan inspector in-charge told the DC, “ it may be a fake address, because we found Mettupalayam post office seal in the letter and the pin code was Alandurai, Coimbatore.”
Honour killing accused not our cadre: HMK President
Amid allegations that a cadre of Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK) was involved in the honour killing at Udumalpet on Sunday, the Hindu outfit’s president Arjun Sampath has denied the role of any of his party functionaries or cadres in the heinous murder. Five assailants were arrested recently by special police team in connection with the honour killing of Dalit engineering student, Shankar.
Following the arrest, there were postings on Facebook claiming that one of the Dindigul based accused, 25-year-old P. Selvakumar is a district president of HMK. Refuting the charges, the party president Arjun Sampath said that Selvakumar was not a functionary of HMK. “He may have taken part in Ganesh Chathurthi celebrations. But he does not belong to our party.” He claimed that his party was committed to the ideals of Ambedkar and was totally opposed to the brutal acts of honour killing.
