In another honour killing case in Telangana, woman beaten to death by parents, body burnt for marrying outside caste

In another case of suspected honour killing in Telangana, a 22-year-old woman in Mancherial district was allegedly beaten to death by her parents and relatives for marrying outside her caste. 

Pindi Anuradha's parents, with the help of some other relatives, killed her in their field, burnt the body and immersed the ashes in a stream, police said. The incident took place at Kalamadugu village of Dandepalli mandal in Mancherial district, about 250 km from Hyderabad, a TNM report said. 

According to reports, Anuradha, who belonged to Padmashali (weavers) community, had been in love with Lakshman, a Yadava, for the last few years. Both castes fall under the OBC category. 

Both lived in the same village. Laxman used to work as a computer operator while Anuradha was a diploma holder in education.

When her parents refused to let her marry, the couple eloped and got married at an Arya Samaj temple in Hyderabad on December 3 in the presence of their friends. 

After staying in Hyderabad for three weeks, they came back to their village on Saturday and sought police protection from the local authorities. The police escorted the couple to the village and left them with Lakshman’s parents.

Late on Saturday night, Anuradha’s parents, along with some relatives, entered Lakshman’s house, assaulted him and forcibly took her away. 

After a complaint from Laxman that his wife Anuradha was forcibly taken away by her parents, police took Anuradha's parents in custody and started searching for her body. 

"Our teams were searching for her and in the due course we found some human bones at a nearby village. We have sent them for forensic examination. We we will not be able to comment anything as of now", Mancherial DCP Venugopal Rao told PTI.

The DCP said they are leaving no stone unturned to nab the culprits. 

A police official, who was part of the investigation, said they have taken Anuradha's parents and a few of her relatives into custody for questioning.

They confessed that Anuradha was dead, the official said, adding that it is not yet clear whether they killed her or she died due to some other problem.

However, the kin confessed that they burnt her body at Mallapur village in nearby Nirmal district. The cause of her death is yet to be ascertained, the official said.

Meanwhile, a video which purportedly shows Anuradha saying that she wanted to live with Laxman, and that her parents will be responsible if anything happens to him or her, has gone viral.

She also purportedly says that police should take cognisance of the video.

Earlier in September, a Dalit engineer was killed by a girl's family. Perumalla Pranay Kumar, a Dalit, was hacked to death in front of his pregnant wife Amrutha Varshini, belonging to the Vyshya community and his mother Premalatha as they were coming out of a clinic where they had gone for Amrutha's pre-natal check-up.

(With PTI inputs)