Four years ago, a 23-year-old Dalit engineering student was hacked to death for getting married to an upper caste woman in Tamil Nadu.
The Madras High Court on Monday acquitted the woman's father, Chinnasamy, who was reportedly the mastermind in the case.
The convicts in the case now include men who were hired to kill Sankar – Jagedesan, Manikandan, Selvakumar, Kalai Tamilvanan, Madan alias Michael.
The court further reduced their death sentence and ordered a life imprisonment for a minimum of 25 years.
The high court even upheld the acquittal of Gowsalya’s mother and two other persons.
In March 2016, the state was shook by the caste killing that took place in Udumalpet in Tiruppur district.
In a daylight murder, Sankar was attacked and left to die on the road. Gowsalya too, was seriously injured and the entire incident was caught on CCTV camera.
It was alleged the parents of Gowsalya – Chinnasamy and Annalakshmi, belonging to the politically powerful Thevar caste – were against the marriage as Sankar was from a scheduled caste. P Pandidurai, the uncle of Kausalya at the behest of Chinnasamy and Annalakshmi had hired a gang to kill Shankar.
The couple had been married for around eight months before the gruesome attack took place.
Chinnasamy’s lawyer ARL Sundaresan told The News Minute that the prosecution did not prove conspiracy between Chinnasamy and the gang.
“The video recording from a shop was relied on by the prosecution, but it was recovered after four days and it could have been morphed,” Sundaresan said. “We argued that the expert who looked at the video was not a proper one,” he told the media channel. He had even categorically denied that the family had ‘accepted’ the girl’s marriage and denied any doing in the matter.
In the CCTV footage of the murder obtained, Gowsalya and Sankar were seen walking in the market when they were attacked brutally by three men riding on a bike.
Sankar had died in the hospital from excessive bleeding and Gowsalya recovered after a long while. She put up a tough fight to demand justice.
In December 2017, the Tiruppur District Sessions Court had awarded death penalty to Chinnasamy with 10 years for criminal conspiracy, and three years for other charges. He was to be hanged after completing his sentence.
In December 2018, she married V Sakthi, a folk artiste, a parai drum player.
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