Her Husband's Killing Was On Camera, Now 19-Year-Old Attempts Suicide

Chennai: In March, 19-year-old Kousalya watched in horror as her husband V Sankar was hacked to death at a busy market in Tamil Nadu's Tirupur, around 500 km from Chennai.

Kousalya, who suffered multiple head injuries in the attack, swallowed cleaning powder this morning in an alleged suicide attempt. She is in a hospital in Coimbatore.

Kousalya started living with her husband's family after the savage attack on March 13 that was captured on CCTV cameras.  The family has told the police that she had repeatedly visited Sankar's grave and had been sad in the past few days.

Her parents, her uncle and seven others are in prison for Sankar's killing.

Kousalya had married Sankar, a young engineering student she had met in college, last year. Her family, which belongs to the politically powerful Thevar caste, refused to accept a Dalit son-in-law.

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In footage that caused an outcry on social media, Kousalya and her husband were seen walking and chatting at a popular shopping area when three men on a bike stopped behind them and suddenly attacked Sankar with sharp weapons. When he stopped moving, the attackers turned on Kausalya and struck her till she fell to the ground.

This was the third caste-related killing in Tamil Nadu in five years, but what is emerging as a worrying trend has been mostly ignored by political parties during the campaign for the polls to be held on Monday, May 16.

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In July 2013, a Dalit man who had married an upper caste woman was found dead on a railway track in Dharmapuri district. Last year, another young man who was found talking to an upper caste woman was abducted and later found dead in Namakkal district.