Sudhakar and Murthy’s daughter Sharmila were in love for the past two years. Sharmila belonged to the Vanniyar community whereas Sudhakar belonged to the Kal Otter community. Sharmila’s family were strongly opposed to their relationship. Thus the two lovers eloped to the Walajapet area, got married and started living there. Nine months later, Sharmila’s family and relatives managed to find them and forcefully took them to Morappanthangal village.
Sudhakar hails from Morappanthangal village in Thiruvannamalai district. Sharmila hails from Ondikudisai village, 1 km from the village. A caste panchayat was held at Morappanthangal village and it was decided that Sudhakar will not contact Sharmila anymore and their marriage was annulled. Sudhakar migrated to Chennai for work. While Sharmila contacted him over the phone and tried to convince him that she wanted to defy the caste panchayat as she considered him to be her husband, spend her future with only him and not with anyone else. Sudhakar warned her that he would be killed if he pursued this and thus advised her to forget him. But Sharmila was unshaken and was determined to reunite with him. Her determination moved Sudhakar and he made up his mind to unite with her. He consoled her and made plans to elope to someplace else .When he returned to his village during the corona lockdown he was thus killed mercilessly.
In the morning hours of 29.03.2020 Sudhakar and Gopi were chatting and walking on the lakeshore in their village when they were blockaded by Murthy and Kadiravan who came in a two-wheeler. Murthy looked at Sudhakar angrily and said “How arrogant are you to be in love with my daughter? What is your caste and what is my caste!? How can a poor labourer like you brave to love my daughter?” While this was happening Kadiravan grabbed Sudhakar’s shirt and pushed him down and abused him with casteist slurs. Gopi found out that they were carrying dangerous weapons like hammer and an iron rod, begged them to spare Sudhakar but Murthy and Kadiravan threatened to kill Gopi if he did not allow them to kill Sudhakar.
Sudhakar and Gopi tried to escape, but they caught Sudhakar pushed him down and hit him hard on the head and chest with a hammer. They also hit him badly in the ears. Sudhakar succumbed to death at the same spot with severe injuries and blood loss. The medical autopsy report revealed that Sudhakar’s face was partially crushed. Both the accused were been booked at Arani Taluk Police Station under Sections 341, 294 (b), 302 of the IPC and remanded.
Artist: Jyotsna Siddharth
#LockdownCasteAtrocities is a campaign by DHRDNet to highlight the cases of atrocity against Dalits that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
