logo
TN ‘honour killing': Ministers, activists visit Kavin's kin to pay respects; urge kin to accept body

TN ‘honour killing': Ministers, activists visit Kavin's kin to pay respects; urge kin to accept body

THOOTHUKUDI: Three days after Dalit youth C Kavin Selvaganesh (26) was hacked to death, several politicians, including ministers K N Nehru and Anitha Radhakrishnan, on Wednesday made a beeline to his house located at Arumugamangalam village near Eral and offered condolences to his family.
Senior police officers tried to convince Kavin's parents to accept the solatium issued by the government and receive his body, which has been kept in the Tirunelveli GH after post morterm examination. But the family refused and demanded the arrest of Saravanan and Krishnakumari, sub-inspectors and parents of Surjit, the main suspect.
Arumugamangalam remained shrouded in a eerie silence which was interrupted by the occasional wailing of Kavin's relatives. His relatives and several villagers wore black badges, and raised black flags in in their houses demanding justice.
Farmers have been boycotting work over the last four days and stood by Kavin's family. On Wednesday, over 50 women blocked the Thoothukudi-Tirunelveli NH demanding arrest of the suspect's parents. Police held talks with the protesters.
TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai spoke to Kavin's father Chandrasekar over phone. 'It has been four days since the brutal murder, however, no action has been taken,' he said, requesting the leader to pressure the government to arrest the parents.
Tamilaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam chief John Pandian said that Kavin's family did not seek a CB-CID probe. 'Until the suspect's police parents are arrested, we will not receive Kavin's body,' he said.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Stronger laws needed to save women from domestic violence: Tamil Nadu State Women Commission
Stronger laws needed to save women from domestic violence: Tamil Nadu State Women Commission

New Indian Express

timean hour ago

  • New Indian Express

Stronger laws needed to save women from domestic violence: Tamil Nadu State Women Commission

MADURAI: Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women chairperson A S Kumari said that 'stronger' laws are needed to protect women from domestic violence. Speaking during an interactive meet, 'Dalit women speak' in Madurai on Saturday, she said, 'Though there is a law, 'Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005,' we need stronger and effective laws to protect domestic violence victims. We see husbands who get punished for such crimes getting out on bail and indulging in the same violence, and this should be stopped at once.' She added, 'When I took charge as the chairperson of the commission, I used to get around 30-40 petitions and complaints every year, and these are mostly from rural places. I was surprised to see more women from villages strongly seeking justice and fighting against the cruelty they go through. I have seen them write the problems in pencils and submit them. We want more women to come forward and fight against their problems. We, along with the government and NGOs, are ready to fight for them and support them.' A Kathir, CEO of Evidence said, 'Women from rural areas are strong. A few years ago, I saw an elderly woman who was fighting for her was sexually harassed eight-year-old granddaughter in court. I even asked her how she was persistent despite the case being dragged on for so long. She said that if she loses interest, the culprits will get stronger, and that is pushing her forward.'

Dalit man killed over Rs 70 in 2020: 2 brothers get life imprisonment
Dalit man killed over Rs 70 in 2020: 2 brothers get life imprisonment

Time of India

time2 hours ago

  • Time of India

Dalit man killed over Rs 70 in 2020: 2 brothers get life imprisonment

Representative Image AGRA: An SC/ST court in Aligarh sentenced two brothers, Virendra Singh and Hoshiyar Singh, both in their early 50s, to life imprisonment for murdering 26-year-old Dalit man Manoj Jatav over a Rs 70 dispute in 2020. The judgement, delivered on Friday, was made available on Saturday. Prosecution officer Chaman Prakash Sharma said that on June 5, 2020, Manoj and his cousin had gone to a shop in Sarkoriya village, where the shopkeeper demanded Rs 70 that Manoj owed, leading to an argument. Later, the brothers and four others allegedly attacked Manoj's house, killing him and injuring his uncle, Arun. Police booked all six accused under IPC sections for murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, attempt to murder, insulting the modesty of a woman, and criminal conspiracy, along with the Arms Act and SC/ST Act. Five were granted bail months later, but Virendra remained in custody. After the trial, four co-accused were acquitted for lack of evidence, while Virendra and Hoshiyar were convicted and fined Rs 55,000 each. They were taken into custody after the verdict. "The case was being heard in the SC/ST court. After examining all evidence and witnesses, the court on Friday acquitted the four co-accused but convicted Virendra and Hoshiyar, imposing life terms and a fine of Rs 55,000 each. As the court pronounced its judgement, both convicts were taken into police custody and sent to jail," prosecution officer Sharma said. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area.

No honour in murder
No honour in murder

The Hindu

time2 hours ago

  • The Hindu

No honour in murder

It has been one week since Kavin Selva Ganesh's parents — Chandrasekar and Tamilselvi — laid his brutally mutilated body to rest. Their grief transcends the screen in every video clip that surfaces online. Their 27-year-old son, an IT employee in Chennai, hailing from Arumugamangalam, a hamlet in Thoothookudi district, was allegedly murdered by his girlfriend's brother, Surjith, because Kavin belonged to the Devendra Kula Velalar or Pallar caste classified as a Scheduled Caste (SC) in India. Surjith belonged to the Most Backward Caste in a community classified as Mukkulathor caste group, who also go by Thevars. 'Honour' killings have become a common hate crime in Tamil Nadu with mounting instances of SC youth being hunted down and killed for having loved outside of their caste. While rooted in caste hatred, it is also rooted in deep-seated misogyny. An article in Economic and Political Weekly on June 28 speaks of how traditional marriage customs, rooted in caste endogamy, contribute to violence against couples who defy these norms. This is particular to Dalit men who marry or associate with women from other communities, especially Savarna women. Dominant caste groups believe that women who love and marry, or in Kavin's case, intend to marry outside of their caste, are pollutants of caste purity. A woman's autonomy here is met with punitive measures. Lest we forget the terrible fate of Vimaladevi, a 20-year-old caste Hindu woman from Poothipuram village in Madurai district, who was found hanging from a tree in 2014 because she eloped with her lover, a Dalit youth, Dhilip Kumar. Her parents were allegedly involved in her murder. D. Suresh Kumar adds that there is a perception that caste killings happen only in villages. Women and men are not free of caste in cities too as demonstrated in this article in The Hindu. For years now, activists have been demanding a law dealing exclusively with honour killings. Anti-caste activist A. Kathir, says that a group came up with a draft, titled The Freedom of Marriage and Association and Prohibition of Crimes in the Name of Honour Act, 2022. Despite the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam promising to honour the creation of the act, it is yet to see the light of day. Based on the social media posts and video edits supporting Surjith from members of his caste, it is evident that this deep-rooted divide between caste groups and their inherent misogyny, in the land deemed 'progressive', will not die down. In a country that attempts to save the institution of marriage at all levels, even in courts, it is important to protect those who wish to marry outside of the shackles caste. Toolkit The Tamil Nadu government released State Policy for Transgender Persons 2025 on August 1. It is a five-year road map that promises education, and dignity with respect to self-identification without medical certification. Some of the most notable parts of the document include taking up the amending of the Hindu Succession Act, Indian Succession Act, among others, to ensure right of inheritance to transgender and intersex persons; and the provision of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis to prevent HIV transmission and the establishment of standardised clinical protocol to treat transgender people. Wordsworth Topside test: 'Are there two trans people in a story talking to each other about something other than medical transition?' The Topside Test coined by author Torrey Peters' hopes to be a metric that answers this exact question, especially in the space of literature. Peters, who is trans herself, authored Stag Dance which was released in March 2025. While promoting her book in a podcast, the author said that a culture must evolve around speaking of trans ideas capturing the daily life of queer people instead of receiving sympathy from cisgender readers. Ouch! 'Just because one is a woman, the government should not be giving money to make films. They should also be provided training. They should know all the difficulties involved in making a film.' Veteran Malayali filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan on incentives for women in film. Women we meet Krupa Ge, a writer and translator, who brought out her book Burns Boy in July, has been working on intersectional literature since her first book River Remembers, a non-fiction on climate change, focussing on the Chennai floods of 2015. She says that as a woman and a mother, she has recently felt a shift in loyalty towards motherhood for obvious reasons. 'I was only an 'inheritor', a daughter, when I wrote What We Know About Her (her first fiction novel). When I finished Burns Boy, I was a mother myself. And to write about the mother in the book and the daughter Aparna was fun as well as cathartic having just experienced the violence of what Lucy Jones writes about in her beautiful book Matrescence,' she says. She says that the world around her is difficult to witness. 'Being a mother is also to feel utterly helpless, watching these mothers of babies in Gaza, and the men risking their lives for flour and formula,' she says. Krupa has enjoyed translating women and is currently translating short fiction.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store