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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Couple stoned to death for caste defiance by GS Radhakrishna

Couple stoned to death for caste defiance by GS Radhakrishna

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published Published on May 27, 2010   modified Modified on May 27, 2010


A Dalit father of two and his upper-caste lover were allegedly stoned to death in an Andhra village in a suspected honour killing case being dubbed the state’s first.

The bodies of S. Sunkari Srinivas, 32, and Swapna Reddy, 22, bearing injury marks caused by stone hits, were found on the outskirts of Krishnajiwadi village in Nizamabad district last night, police said. The attackers were alleged relatives of Swapna, who could not accept her relationship with a married man from a lower caste.

The couple had got married this January in Tirupati, apparently on the sly, but returned to the village a couple of days back in the hope of being able to convince their relatives to accept the relationship, the police said.

According to neighbours, there were a lot of arguments and heated exchanges at Swapna’s home all of yesterday. At one point, the relatives of the girl dragged the couple out of their house and allegedly started stoning them as the villagers watched in horror. “Show no mercy and kill them,” one of Swapna’s brothers was heard telling the attackers.

The bodies were found late in the night, dumped on a roadside on the outskirts of the village. Sub-inspector V. Vijay Kumar confirmed the bodies bore injuries caused by stone hits and that the couple had died almost immediately.

Nizamabad police chief K. Venkateshwara Rao said Swapna’s relatives had stoned them to death and that a probe was on. No arrests have been made so far.

Strangely enough, Srinivas’s first wife Padma, 27, appeared to have accepted his relationship with Swapna. “He had always been a wayward husband and beat me whenever I asked him (about his affairs),” the police quoted Padma as saying.

The killings were said to have sparked tension between the Dalits and upper castes in the village. A police picket has been posted.

Although the incident is possibly a first in Andhra, social tensions are not new in the state’s rural areas, dominated by the land-owing upper castes such as the Reddys, Kamma and Velamas. Inter-caste marriages are almost taboo.

Only last week, an inter-caste couple were invited by relatives and served poisoned sweets in Karimnagar, the police said. The pair survived as friends were quick to suspect foul play when the two collapsed and rushed them to hospital.

Earlier, an upper caste groom was beaten unconscious by his relatives at the wedding venue before his Dalit bride and scores of guests.


The Telegraph, 28 May, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100528/jsp/nation/story_12496072.jsp


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