In yet another disturbing caste killing case in Tamil Nadu, a 28-year-old Dalit man was hacked to death by the family of the woman he loved.

K Vairamuthu from Adiyamangalam village of Mayiladuthurai district was brutally attacked with sickles on the night of September 16, sustaining serious injuries on his neck and wrists. He was rushed to the Mayiladuthurai Government Hospital but he succumbed to his injuries.

Vairamuthu, a two-wheeler mechanic, was in a decade-long relationship with 26-year-old Malini, an MBA graduate from Chennai. However, her family, especially her mother, Vijaya, vehemently opposed it.

Reports suggest that Vijaya once turned up at the Dalit’s workplace and hurled casteist slurs at him.”My life has already been ruined like this; at least my daughter’s life should not be wasted,” she reportedly told him.

Vijaya belongs is a Chettiar (OBC) who married Malini’s father, from the Paraiyar community.

On September 14, two days before the murder, both families were counselled by the police. At that time, Malini expressed her desire to marry Vairamuthu and reportedly moved in with him.

Her family disowned her and submitted a written statement that they would not interfere in the young couple’s matter hereafter.

Excited to start a new chapter in their life, Malini went to Chennai to collect documents for her registered marriage. However, her dreams were shattered as on the very same night, Vairamuthu was hacked to death by her family.

On Wednesday, September 18, police arrested Vijaya, K Gugan, 21; A Anbunithi, 19 and S Baskar, 42. A case under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was registered. 

Following the arrest, the Dalit man’s distraught family accepted his body. They staged a roadblock on the Mayiladuthurai–Kumbakonam highway, demanding the immediate arrest of his murderers.

However, an inconsolable Malini cannot fathom a life without Vairamuthu. “After ten years of love, everything has been destroyed. He couldn’t even live peacefully in the house he built. Police assured us of safety, but no one protected us,” she told reporters.

The killing of Vairamuthu is another caste horror coming from the southernmost state of India. In July, a 27-year-old Dalit software engineer working in Chennai was allegedly hacked to death by his girlfriend’s brother in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district.

Kavin Selvaganesh was murdered by his girlfriend’s brother, Surjith Saravanan, in front ot the former’s mother at a Siddha hospital in Tirunelveli.

The young Dalit’s mother, Tamilselvi, witnessed the brutal murder of her son. “While he (Surjith) was shouting, he suddenly attacked my son with a machete, injuring his arm. Kavin then started running, and Surjith chased him and hacked him to death. He told me to take the body and leave. ‘My parents will be peaceful only after this,’ he said,” her police complaint stated.

Police arrested Surjith and his father Saravanan, who worked as a sub-inspector in the Tamil Nadu police force.