Daijiworld Media Network – Ramanagara (SP)

Ramanagara, Mar 3: The scourge of honour killing, an age-old practice that was hitherto prevalent since long in North Indian states, seems to have entered Karnataka too. Parents of Deepika (21), a native of Tamasandra village in Kanakapura district, have been accused of ending the lives of their daughter and her four-month-old child. Reportedly, they were angry at their daughter for marrying a boy from a lower caste.

In a complaint filed with Bangalore rural police station, Venkatesh, husband of Deepika, has accused his in-laws and a few relatives of murdering his wife. He said that Deepika’s parents and some close relatives were livid at the fact that she had chosen to marry a boy who was disapproved by them. Deepika’s father, Ramakrishnaiah, mother, Gouramma, relatives, Venkateshaiah, Maregowda, Padmamma, and police personnel, Chikkabeerappa Gowda, have been named as the accused in the complaint.

Deepika was in love with Venkatesh from Karikaldoddi village, Maralavadi revenue division, of Kanakapura taluk. Her crime, in the eyes of her parents, was that she loved a boy from Uppara community, considered to be inferior to their own. About a year back, the two had tied nuptial knots in spite of stiff opposition from the girl’s side. Deepika lived with her husband in Mangalavarapete in Channapatna.

On January 30 this year, the parents of Deepika had come to take her to Tamasandra, native of her grandmother. The police inspector of Bangalore rural station said that Deepika and her child were killed either at midnight on February 26 or early morning on the next day, and that their bodies were burnt early morning on February 27.  He expressed confidence of arresting the culprits shortly.

The policemen visited the village and collected bones from the spot where the mother and the baby were cremated. These bones are being sent for forensic tests. In the meantime, all the accused have absconded. A few distant relatives of Deepika, who stay in the village, claimed that the baby died of diarrhea a few days before the mother committed suicide. They said that the family could not contct Venkatesh to inform him about these deaths. It is said that in October 2010, Deepika had filed a complaint in Harohalli police station, claiming that her family was forcing her to sign papers, relinquishing her rights on the ancestral property.