Chennai:
A 19-year-old Dalit man and his 16-year-old girlfriend, belonging to a Most Backward Class (MBC) community, were found dead in Tamil Nadu’s Mayiladuthurai district on Tuesday. Police suspect the couple died by suicide following intense family opposition to their inter-caste relationship.
The bodies of the young couple were found hanging after they had reportedly gone missing. The girl, who had recently completed school and was awaiting college admission, and the man had been in a relationship for some time, investigators said.
According to the police, tensions had been escalating between the two families over the inter-caste relationship. Investigators said the girl’s family had allegedly warned and assaulted the man over the affair. Following the attack, the Dalit man’s family filed a police complaint against the girl’s family.
In retaliation, members of the 19-year-old’s family allegedly attacked vehicles belonging to the girl’s family. Soon afterwards, the couple went missing. Their bodies were later discovered hanging, triggering shock in the area.
Protests erupted in Mayiladuthurai district, with people demanding enactment of law against dishonour killings.
A senior police officer told NDTV that investigators are treating the deaths as a suspected case of suicide.
“We are investigating. We suspect this could be a case of suicide. No suicide note has been recovered. Everything will become clear after the post-mortem report. They were in love, and we are investigating what triggered this,” the officer said.
The incident has sparked a political row, with the opposition DMK accusing the ruling TVK government of a complete collapse of law and order. The criticism came on the very day Chief Minister Vijay was reviewing the state’s law-and-order situation with senior officials.
In a post on X, the DMK alleged that Tamil Nadu was witnessing “cinema-like scenes of brutal villainy in real life” and said the incident reflected the serious deterioration of law and order. The party questioned whether the Chief Minister would focus on maintaining public order instead of political priorities.
The ruling TVK has yet to respond to the allegations or comment on the incident.
