Honour killing in Kerala takes political turn: Girl decided to leave her parents
Kerala : When police recovered the dead body of a 23-year-old youth, who disappeared at 2 am, no one had expected that the case will take a political turn in the state. The body was found floating in a stream near Chaliyakkara in Kollam district. For now, opposition parties called a ‘hartal’ in Kottayam today over his death, while Congress and BJP leaders have raised allegations over the ‘mysterious’ disconnection of cable TV services in areas around Chengannur. They have alleged that this has been done to stop the news from reaching voters.
As per the local news reporters, the youth was set to marry a girl against the consent of her family on that particular day when he was allegedly kidnapped by her brother and his gang of friends, who are reportedly DYFI activists. At around 6 am, his father went to the local police station to file a missing report of his son but his complaint was not accepted till local news agencies reported it. The youth’s fiancee had also placed a complaint at the local police station at 10 am regarding his disappearance. Local news reports say that she was told to wait until Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s programme in the district was concluded.
During the investigation, police found the foot marks near the banks of the stream where the dead body was found, raising serious doubts about the kind of his death. Later, the youth’s body was shifted to Kottayam Medical College for postmortem. On the way, the ambulance carrying his body was blocked as many agitated protesters who demanded to see the body. Following the youth’s death, serious questions have been raised about carelessness of the police department.
Former Additional Chief Secretary Sajan Peter, in his column today in Malayala Manorama’s edit page, shared his views, “What justification is there for police inaction when the complaints were made? These are not ‘isolated’ incidents. Remember, what happened in Varapuzha? Then what about the death of the foreigner in Kovalam? In a democracy, the role of the police is to function as a powerful tool to serve the people and protect them. If a police man does not have time to register a complaint, then that person should not serve in the police force and should be removed. Suspending a police officer is merely a temporary measure, it does not address the real issue of police inaction.”
According to the statement of the youth’s fiancee, her family had disapproved of the youth’s financial status. Though not married, she has now decided to come back to her family even if they urge her to come home. She has declared her decision to stay at the home with the parents of the deceased youth.
