A 26-year-old Dalit youth, who married a Hindu girl against the wishes of her family, was murdered in Pallikaranai on Saturday night. Five men, including the brother-in-law of the victim, were arrested in connection with the crime on Sunday.
A senior official of the Tambaram Police Commissionerate said G. Praveen, of Ambedkar Street in Pallikaranai, who worked as a mechanic, had fallen in love with Sharmila, 21, a final year student at a private college. Praveen married Ms. Sharmila, who belongs to an Most Backward Class (MBC) community, without the knowledge of her parents in October 2023. This angered the girl’s family, particularly her brother Dinesh.
Dinesh had recently informed his friends of wanting to take revenge on Praveen, as his family’s reputation had been ruined. He and four of his friends – Stephen, Vishnuraj, Sriram, and Jothilingam – planned to murder Praveen.
On Saturday night, Praveen had gone to a restaurant to buy dinner. When he was returning, Dinesh called him on the phone and asked him to meet him at a liquor shop nearby. When he reached the spot, Dinesh and his friends murdered him with knives and fled.
The Pallikaranai police filed a murder case under the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, since Praveen belonged to a Scheduled Caste, and arrested the five suspects on Sunday morning.
