Dalit Man Killed in AP, Weeks After Inter-Caste Marriage

Maheshwari (24) alleged that her family had been threatening them for the past few weeks and were behind her husband’s murder.

(Photo: The News Minute)

It has been seven weeks since Maheshwari married Adam Smith against her family’s wishes. They moved away from their hometown in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district, afraid of her family’s wrath, and started a new life in Adoni town in the same district.

On Thursday afternoon, Adam was brutally murdered by two men who arrived in their neighbourhood on a bike. The men hit Adam on the head with metal pipes, and went on to drop a boulder on his head, Adoni police said. Maheshwari has alleged that her family killed Adam and has filed a complaint with the Adoni police.

Adam belonged to the Madiga community, categorised as Scheduled Caste (SC), while Maheshwari is from the Kuruba BC (Backward Class) community. They met in their hometown Gurazala, in Nandavaram mandal of Kurnool district.

Maheshwari, who is 24, says that as her family did not agree to their marriage, they left their hometown and married in Hyderabad.

Anticipating a violent response from her family, she says that they even sought protection from the police. However, her family continued to threaten them, Maheshwari told the media.

“Because we are from different castes, my family didn’t agree to our marriage. We went to Hyderabad and married at Arya Samaj (Mandir) on 12 November. From there we went to Kurnool, to the office of the Superintendent of Police, and sought protection. They told our family to stay away from us. Yet, since then, they have been making phone calls and threatening us,” Maheshwari said. “My father and uncle killed my husband, because of caste,” she added.

A case has been booked against Maheshwari’s father and uncle, Chinna Veeranna and Pedda Veeranna, under Section 302 (Murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as well as the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 at the Adoni II Town police station. Adoni II Town Circle Inspector Sriramulu said that the case is still being investigated and no arrests have been made yet.

(This story was first published on The News Minute and has been republished in an arrangement.)