Dalit hangs self after wife opts to stay with parents

CHENNAI: After years of courtship, they eloped and got married, but lived as a couple for barely a month. In what appears to be a case of striking similarity to the recent Divya-Ilavarasan love tragedy at Dharmapuri, a 27-year-old Dalit man committed suicide here after his caste Hindu wife deserted him due to apparent pressure from her parents against their inter-caste marriage.

K Vinoth Raj, an MBA graduate working in a private bank, was found hanging in the mansion he was staying at in Royapettah on Saturday. Vinoth Raj was staying at the mansion for the last few months after he got a job in a T Nagar branch of a private bank’s sales department.

A suicide note, which he had left behind in his laptop, said he had taken the extreme step unable to bear his wife disowning him in court. During the habeas corpus petition hearing last week, his wife Shahana, had told the court that she preferred to be with her parents. Vinoth Raj had left a handwritten note addressed to his friend asking him to check a file on his computer. He had even mentioned the name of the file in the slip of paper.

Relatives of Vinoth Raj blamed the woman and her parents for his suicide and have lodged a police complaint seeking to book them on charges of abetment to suicide. According to them, Vinoth Raj and Shahana, hailing from neighbouring villages in Tiruvarur district, were in love since their school days. They got married in January after eloping, since the woman’s caste Hindu parents vehemently opposed their relationship.

Source: The Hindu