Brother kills sister for 'family honour' in Kadapa

Kadapa/Karimnagar: The spate of honour killings seen elsewhere in the country has surfaced in Andhra Pradesh. Two gruesome incidents of this practice have come to light in Kadapa and Karimnagar districts.

In the first case, a man along with a relative killed his own sister for her wish to marry a Dalit youth. The victim was an agriculture extension officer in Kadapa district.

In the other case, a youth killed a friend for expressing love towards his sister. In the Kadapa incident, the offence was committed 16 days ago and the girl's body was exhumed on Sunday.

The brother and his accomplice confessed to the police their crime and led the cops to the scene of offence. In the Karimnagar district killing, the ghastly act was committed on May 16. Details of a friend killing a close buddy are:

Pratap Srinath of Bheemeswara Alayam Street of Vemulawada town and Anil (27) had been thick friends from childhood. Srinath belongs to Brahmin caste and Anil belongs to Goud.

Anil recently completed his B Tech. He had fallen in love with Srinath's sister and broke the news to his friend. Though Srinath warned Anil against pursuing the matter, the latter expressed his strong resolve to marry her. Angered at this, Srinath hatched a plan to eliminate Anil. He took help from two others ' Naresh and Imam.

On May 16, they took Anil to the outskirts of Kamareddy town where they consumed liquor. Srinath mixed some tablets in the liquor consumed by Anil and the latter fell unconscious.

Then, they beat the unconscious person with sticks till he died. Later, they poured petrol on the body and set it ablaze. On May 17, Anil's parents Sathevva and Narsaiah lodged a missing complaint with the Vemulawada police.

Vemulawada CI Samala Upender led a team and cracked the case. Srinath was arrested on Sunday and produced before the media. Police have launched a manhunt for the other accused. Sircilla OSD Janaki Dharavath and Upender presented the accused Srinath before the media at Vemulawada on Sunday.

In the Kadapa case, Lalitha (20), an Agriculture Extension Officer in Chagalamarri area in the district, fell in love with one Nageswar Rao, a Dalit from Chapadu mandal in Kurnool district. Her caste is Yadava.

When Lalitha informed her brother Gangaiah, he bitterly opposed their marriage. Suspecting that his sister would indeed go ahead with her plans to marry a Dalit youth, Gangaiah along with a relative killed her and dumped her body in Kondur River last month.

Worried over the disappearance of Lalitha since April 27, her sister Varalakshmi approached the police to trace her. At first the Kadapa police refused to register a complaint and did not take any action.

It was only when Varalakshmi threatened to bring the matter to the notice of media personnel that the police registered her complaint on May 8. Meanwhile, realising that they could not escape from the murder, Gangaiah and his relative surrendered before the police and confessed to the crime.

Police found the body in a highly decomposed state and sent it for post-mortem. Those who don't bother about caste, community and even religion for bringing two like-minded man and woman together in marriage, killing another person just for defying self-imposed restrictions look primitive.

But for some others, these are life and death issues. An honour killing could be considered one among these. It is the doing to death a member of the family or social group by his or her kin or the community elders for the simple reason that the girl wants to marry someone outside their caste or community or religion.

The perceived prospects of loss of family or community honour blinds the social group or family members to take to the extreme measure. Though men also become victims of this heinous practice, it is more so in the case of girls.

Another reason found to be a cause of honour killing is the ego of family members at the refusal of the victims to heed the diktats of the elders ' own family or social group 'and express their strong conviction to go against the elders.

What shocks one is the extent of hatred and anger that build up among the family or community members and turn them into savages.